Ethik-Monitor 2006: What values do Germans hold?

The Ethik-Monitor, run by the Hamburger Stiftung für Wirtschaftsethik, is a social science study of values which was developed in collaboration with the University of Bamberg and Zeppelin University in Friedrichshafen, and is carried out regularly with various project partners. Based on approximately one thousand representative, face-to-face interviews in each round, the Ethics Monitor draws conclusions about the values and attitudes of the population and examines people’s views on political and economic institutions and their representatives, on issues of justice, and on the acceptance of the political and economic system in general. 

The 2006 Ethik-Monitor examined the question of what values Germans hold, the importance these values have in their personal lives, and how they assess political institutions and large commercial enterprises – and, above all, their representatives – in this regard. The survey was carried out by the TNS Emnid Institute.
The survey, carried out between the end of April and the end of May 2006, polled 1,003 people. All the results and press releases from the Ethik-Monitor are available for download on the right-hand side for those interested. Below is a brief summary of the findings.

A values gap between politics and the public

When asked about the virtue they consider most important, more than half of citizens ranked honesty as their top priority. However, when assessing the relevance of honesty as a virtue for politicians, only 29 per cent of respondents placed this value at the top of a scale of values. According to the respondents, values such as a sense of duty (52 per cent) and decency (50 per cent) are considered more important for politicians. Values associated with solidarity, such as fairness (32 per cent) and compassion (29 per cent), are apparently attributed to politicians less frequently.

Lack of trust in political institutions and large corporations

Only 11 per cent of respondents express trust in large commercial enterprises. Trust in the Federal Government and the Bundestag is only slightly higher, at around 14 per cent.

Prof. Dr Joachim Behnke of LMU Munich, head of the research team analysing the study, notes a “deep crisis of confidence among citizens in political institutions and groups”. Around 50 per cent of those surveyed have ‘no to absolutely no trust’ in the Federal Government and the Bundestag. This is roughly the same percentage as for ‘strangers one meets for the first time’ and for ‘large commercial enterprises’.

Trust in small and medium-sized enterprises is significantly higher than that in large commercial enterprises

Trust in ‘the business sector’ depends heavily on who is regarded as its representative: whilst small and medium-sized enterprises enjoy the trust of no less than 43 per cent of those surveyed, only 11 per cent place their trust in large corporations.

Top managers responsible for the loss of trust

When asked about the causes of the loss of trust in large corporations, the answer lies in mistrust of leading business figures: 79 per cent of respondents are convinced that business leaders think primarily of their own interests, and 42 per cent believe that most business leaders are corrupt. Just under 13 per cent believe that business leaders are also concerned with the common good. 77 per cent express the conviction that business leaders are now primarily concerned only with boosting share prices at the expense of employees.

The fairness of the economic system is called into question

Only 13 per cent of those surveyed consider the economic system to be fair. Whilst 60 per cent in the new federal states believe the economic system is unfair, the figure is 40 per cent in the old federal states. In both the East and the West, trust in business leaders is the most important factor in assessing fairness. 79 per cent of East Germans and 60 per cent of West Germans who believe that business leaders are not trustworthy or honest people consider the economic system to be unfair.

East Germans criticise internal workplace injustice – West Germans call for greater competence

Otherwise, there are different motives for assessing fairness between the new and the old federal states. East Germans attribute the unfairness primarily to the fact that business leaders act at the expense of employees and that employees’ interests no longer play a significant role. In the West, by contrast, corruption and the competence of business leaders are the main factors in assessing fairness. The results of the Ethics Monitor thus reveal differing conceptions of fairness in eastern and western Germany. “What is interesting about these results is the differing views on what is perceived as fair,” says Tim Bendixen, project manager at the Hamburger Stiftung für Wirtschaftsethik. “East Germans define justice more from a concrete, welfare-state and common-good-oriented perspective, whilst West Germans tend to argue from an abstract, normative and performance-oriented viewpoint.”