I read an interesting article by Ross Gittins in the Sydney Morning Herald. He had read a book by Jonathan Haidt "The Righteous Mind: Why good people are divided by politics and religion". Haidt (pronounced Height) is an academic in moral psychology at University of Virginia. The book's web site is http://righteousmind.com His theory expands on the model of altruism in societies to a model of morals. Haidt gives a six-dimensional model of morals: care vs harm, liberty vs oppression, fairness vs cheating, loyalty vs betrayal, authority vs subversion, and sanctity vs degradation. One interesting outcome he has found is those who would class themselves as small-L liberals have morals only based in the first three dimensions where as conservatives operate using all six dimensions. It would be interesting to apply the model in teaching groups from small to massive.
Gittins final remark is telling in the current political debate. "Haidt argues the community benefits from the ever-present tension between the two sides - each emphasises import aspects of maintaining a good society - if only we could restore a greater degree of civility between the contending parties."