„UNIVERSAL VALUES” AND REGIONAL EXPERIENCE. (CENTRAL EUROPE AND THE CONTEMPORARY WESTERN DEBATES ON VALUES AND DEVELOPMENT IDEALS)

The paper discusses the role and diffusion mechanisms of Western values and development ideals which propagate in Central Europe as the axiological basis of the „imitative modernization” of the societies in the region. Some of those Western values seem to have been „Hellenized”, i.e. accepted because of their inherent qualities but others have been mostly culturally imposed by the worldwide power of their carriers. While the democratic values in the political sphere seem to be Hellenized, the ideals of both economic order (market vs. state intervention) and cultural order (individual choice and tolerance for alternative life-styles vs. tradition and community) are a subject of heated debate. The West views liberty as the most important value and panacea for social problems, Central Europeans would rather like to have a better equilibrium of liberty, equality and fraternity (or communitarian solidarity)