Comparative-Quantitative Study of Symbolic Unity Among Societies and Its Determinants from 1981 to 2022

Symbolic unity, as one of the basic requirements of social order, which is often used interchangeably with concepts such as social and value consensus in sociological literature, has always been the subject of theoretical and empirical inquiries. Considering the various effects of symbolic unity on different aspects of social life, such as economic growth and development, social and political instability, political participation, and social cohesion, this study aims to investigate the factors affecting the level of symbolic unity in societies. This study was conducted using the panel analysis of data gathered from 89 countries from 1981 to 2020. Further, it proposes a new index called “level of symbolic unity” on a scale of 0 to 100 for country-years with available data, utilizing the World Values Survey (WVS) wave 7 data. The findings suggest that the level of post-materialism in society's culture paves the way for lowering the level of symbolic unity in societies. Additionally, migration and the level of cosmopolitan communication of societies, by expanding the value horizon and introducing different values from other societies, contribute to the emergence of distinct identities and, consequently, weaken the collective conscience, as conceptualized by Emile Durkheim, or reduce the subsequent level of symbolic unity in societies. The results also show that the level of earlier economic development of societies exerts a negative impact on the level of subsequent symbolic unity of societies. In general, given the consequentialism of symbolic unity as a prerequisite for societal development in societies, and the potential risk of social disorder, especially for transitional and fragile societies, cultural planners and policymakers should accord greater attention to the problem of symbolic unity and social order.