This book is intended to provide a new approach to the study of global values and global value change, based on representative international survey data, and above all, the World Values Survey. This theme is of growing interest not only to the international social science community, but also international policymakers and business and financial executives in the framework of international values and business studies. Since the book is also designed to serve advanced graduate courses in sociology, political science and economics at Universities, government and business staff training centers, diplomatic academies et cetera, this book also contains themes for 10-20 minute statements (1000-2000 words) that students and course participants should be able to prepare after attending a course on global values. Furthermore, this book covers the entire population in an ever-growing number of countries, and now already comprising some 90% of the total global population on earth. The importance of this data for international politics cannot be overestimated: foreign ministries, international organizations, ministerial planning departments of national governments, national intelligence agencies, international bankers and investors, pension fund managers, global insurance enterprises, organizations of national and international security, NGOs and religious communities can all benefit from these freely available data, which indeed will revolutionize our discourse on international politics and political culture. In our book, we will attempt to define "cultures" on a global scale largely following Alesina and Guiliano (2013). Although some of our preferred World Values Survey indicators are different from those used by Alesina and Guiliano (2013), there is sufficient resemblance between the two approaches, and also there is a high correspondence between the choropleth geographical maps of global values, resulting from the research attempt by Alesina and Guiliano, and our own investigations. We show in this book that the world economic rise of the global South, among them the BRIC countries and the countries of the Arab Gulf, is no coincidence: economic growth in the post-crisis period from 2008 onwards is highly and positively correlated with family values.

All too often, the loss of religion and the rise of the shadow economy, including in leading Western countries, go hand in hand. The decay of family values, which are so deeply enshrined in the religious commandments of Judaism, Christianity and Islam, and which are also basic to the other global religious civilizations, goes hand in hand with the decay of economic and social values and are explored in this book.