ABSTRACT
In this paper, value differences in former East and West Germany are studied in order to determine which values can be expected to change, perhaps leading to a gradual convergence of East and West, and which values will resist change for some time to come. If it is true, as some observers say, that the unified Germany is still a divided country—not so much in terms of material living conditions but ideologically, it is attempted to predict in what way the ideological "innerwall" is a fact to be reckoned with even in the future. Based on the International Social Justice Project (ISJP) data from 1991 and 1996, the focus is on particular values—on four justice ideologies: egalitarianism, individualism, ascriptivism, and fatalism which are derived from grid-group theory, and it is tested whether these four ideologies form a common set of beliefs in East and West Germany. Results show that they do, but that East and West Germans have very different ideological preferences within this ideological framework. Therefore it is next tested whether the differences are rooted in cultural distinctions between the East and the West or whether they can be explained by the social positions individuals in East and West Germany hold—and by the rational interests attached to these positions. Using a structural equation approach to examine the genuine east-west effects and the structural effects, we find little evidence for cultural differences but ample evidence for social structural determination. From these findings it is concluded that the ideological "inner wall" running through Germany is bound to fall if living conditions on both sides become even more alike.
