Attitudes toward the role of government in central Asian countries and Turkey

The paper studies the differences in attitudes toward the role of the state among the countries and addresses empirically determinants of personal preferences on redistribution and public ownership of firms in Central Asia Countries and Turkey. In the study, we employed the data by World Value Survey (WVS) and European Value Survey (EVS). The comparison at country level indicates that pro-government preferences increase in the most of the countries by the time. Another fact is that the average of individualistic/collectivist attitudes is correlated with the per capita income level of countries. Attitudes favor of redistribution are positively correlated with per capita GDP, while attitudes favor public ownership and government responsibility are negatively correlated with it. Moreover, the homogeneity of citizens’ views in a country is positively associated with the country’s income level. We analyzed the individual-level determinants of the preferences on redistribution and ownership in Central Asian Countries and Turkey by both the country-level samples and a combined sample of mentioned countries. Results reveal the evidences on significance of income level, subjective wellbeing (happiness and life satisfaction), generalized trust, confidence on government and private sector firms, political views and religiousness in order to determine the preferences on redistribution and ownership, along with demographic characteristics such as gender, age. However, the significance and magnitude of coefficients vary to country sample.