Modernization and Postmodernization: Cultural, Economic, and Political Change in 43 Societies

by Ronald Inglehart

Overview

Ronald Inglehart argues that economic development, cultural change, and political change go together in coherent and even, to some extent, predictable patterns. This is a controversial claim. It implies that some trajectories of socioeconomic change are more likely than others—and consequently that certain changes are foreseeable. Once a society has embarked on industrialization, for example, a whole syndrome of related changes, from mass mobilization to diminishing differences in gender roles, is likely to appear. These changes in worldviews seem to reflect changes in the economic and political environment, but they take place with a generational time lag and have considerable autonomy and momentum of their own. But industrialization is not the end of history. Advanced industrial society leads to a basic shift in values, de-emphasizing the instrumental rationality that characterized industrial society. Postmodern values then bring new societal changes, including democratic political institutions and the decline of state socialist regimes. To demonstrate the powerful links between belief systems and political and socioeconomic variables, this book draws on a unique database, the World Values Surveys. This database covers a broader range than ever before available for looking at the impact of mass publics on political and social life. It provides information from societies representing 70 percent of the world's population—from societies with per capita incomes as low as $300 per year to those with per capita incomes one hundred times greater and from long-established democracies with market economies to authoritarian states.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9780691011806
Publisher:	Princeton University Press
Publication date:	05/25/1997
Edition description:	New Edition
Pages:	464
Product dimensions:	6.00(w) x 9.25(h) x (d)

About the Author

Ronald Inglehart is Professor of Political Science and Program Director at the Institute for Social Research at the University of Michigan. Among his books are The Silent Revolution: Changing Values and Political Styles among Western Publics and Culture Shift in Advanced Industrial Society, both published by Princeton University Press.

Table of Contents

Acknowledgments
Introduction: Changing Values and Changing Societies	3
Ch. 1	Value Systems: The Subjective Aspect of Politics and Economics	7
Ch. 2	Individual-Level Change and Societal-Level Change	51
Ch. 3	Modernization and Postmodernization in 43 Societies	67
Ch. 4	Measuring Materialist and Postmaterialist Values	108
Ch. 5	The Shift toward Postmaterialist Values, 1970-1994	131
Ch. 6	Economic Development, Political Culture, and Democracy: Bringing the People Back In	160
Ch. 7	The Impact of Culture on Economic Growth	216
Ch. 8	The Rise of New Issues and New Parties	237
Ch. 9	The Shift toward Postmodern Values: Predicted and Observed Changes, 1981-1990	267
Ch. 10	The Erosion of Institutional Authority and the Rise of Citizen Intervention in Politics	293
Ch. 11	Trajectories of Social Change	324
App. 1	A Note on Sampling: Figures A.1 and A.2	343
App. 2	Partial 1990 WVS Questionnaire, with Short Labels for Items Used in Figure 3.2	351
App. 3	Supplementary Figures for Chapters 3, 9, and 10; Figures A.3 (Chapter 6), A.4-A.21 (Chapter 9), A.22-A.26 (Chapter 10), and A.27 (Chapter 11)	357
App. 4	Construction of Key Indices Used in This Book	389
App. 5	Complete 1990 WVS Questionnaire, with Variable Numbers in ICPSR Dataset	393
References	431
Index	445

What People are Saying About This

Herbert Kitschelt

Inglehart's new book analyzes the most encompassing dataset on political values and orientations ever collected, in order to assess cultural theories of political and economic change. His well-understood (and subtly reinterpreted) version of modernization theory will draw throngs of critics, as did Inglehart's previous works. But he provides clinching evidence for a logic of cultural development that even his toughest critics can not ignore.
— Herbert Kitschelt, Professor of Political Science, Duke University

From the Publisher

"This latest book by Ronald Inglehart represents another path-breaking advance in his three-decade-long exploration of cultural change in contemporary societies. Few scholars are as adept as Inglehart in weaving together a broad vision of historical change and a fine-grained analysis of survey results into a coherent account of how the world is changing around us."—Robert D. Putnam, author of Making Democracy Work

"Inglehart's new book analyzes the most encompassing dataset on political values and orientations ever collected, in order to assess cultural theories of political and economic change. His well-understood (and subtly reinterpreted) version of modernization theory will draw throngs of critics, as did Inglehart's previous works. But he provides clinching evidence for a logic of cultural development that even his toughest critics can not ignore."—Herbert Kitschelt, Professor of Political Science, Duke University

Putnam

This latest book by Ronald Inglehart represents another path-breaking advance in his three-decade-long exploration of cultural change in contemporary societies. Few scholars are as adept as Inglehart in weaving together a broad vision of historical change and a fine-grained analysis of survey results into a coherent account of how the world is changing around us.
— Robert D. Putnam, author of "Making Democracy Work"

Editorial Reviews

"[This is] Inglehart's most convincing demonstration of the theory of intergenerational value change, the cornerstone of his scholarship. . . . With data from 43 societies collected over nearly three decades, and representing 70 percent of the world's population . . .the analysis of Inglehart's unprecedented comparative dataset is nuanced, sophisticated, and certain to stimulate the kind of criticism that will deepen our understanding of social change."

The Review of Politics

Ronald Inglehart is one of the very few scholars to have remained consistently engaged with both the study of political culture and the development of modernization theory over the past few decades. In Modernization and Postmodernization, he presents the cumulative results of decades of research on the interrelationships among cultural values, democracy, and capitalism. His findings are consistently thought-provoking and often surprising and should inspire prolonged and productive controversy. . . . Overall, Inglehart's fascinating book raises tantalizing questions about the long-term trajectory of value change in modern society.

Comparative Politics - Stephen E. Hanson

Ronald Inglehart is one of the very few scholars to have remained consistently engaged with both the study of political culture and the development of modernization theory over the past few decades. In Modernization and Postmodernization, he presents the cumulative results of decades of research on the interrelationships among cultural values, democracy, and capitalism. His findings are consistently thought-provoking and often surprising and should inspire prolonged and productive controversy. . . . Overall, Inglehart's fascinating book raises tantalizing questions about the long-term trajectory of value change in modern society.
— Stephen E. Hanson

Comparative Politics

"Ronald Inglehart is one of the very few scholars to have remained consistently engaged with both the study of political culture and the development of modernization theory over the past few decades. In Modernization and Postmodernization, he presents the cumulative results of decades of research on the interrelationships among cultural values, democracy, and capitalism. His findings are consistently thought-provoking and often surprising and should inspire prolonged and productive controversy. . . . Overall, Inglehart's fascinating book raises tantalizing questions about the long-term trajectory of value change in modern society.

"—-Stephen E. Hanson, Comparative Politics

From the Publisher