Value-oriented citizenship index: New extensions of Kelman and Hamilton’s theory to prevent autocracy

• We construct an index to measure value orientation to the political system.
• An initial study on 180 people analyses the relationship with pro-democratic attitudes.
• A second study compares different countries using data from the World Values Survey.
• The studies confirm the validity of the index in measuring pro-democratic value orientation.

In Crimes of obedience, Kelman and Hamilton argue that societies can be protected by the degeneration of authority only when citizenship is based on a strong values orientation. This reference to values may be the weakest point in their theory because they do not explicitly define these values. Nevertheless, their empirical findings suggest that the authors are referring to specific democratic principles and universal values (e.g., equality, fairness, harmlessness). In this article, a composite index known as the value-oriented citizenship (VOC) index is introduced and empirically analysed. The results confirm that the VOC index discriminates between people who relate to authority based on values rather than based on their role or on rules in general. The article discusses the utility of the VOC index to develop Kelman and Hamilton’s framework further empirically as well as its implications for the analysis of the relationship between individuals and authority.