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Modernization, Cultural Change and Democracy:
The Human Development Sequence
Authors: Ronald Inglehart, Christian Welzel
(New York and Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2005)
This book demonstrates that people’s basic values and beliefs are changing in ways that affect their political, sexual, economic, and religious behavior. These changes are roughly predictable: the overall pattern can be explained by the revised version of modernization theory presented here. Drawing on a massive body of evidence from societies on all six inhabited continents, the authors demonstrate that economic development gives rise to cultural changes that make individual autonomy, gender equality and democracy increasingly likely. The authors present a model of social change that predicts how the value systems of given societies are likely to evolve in coming decades. They demonstrate that mass values play a crucial role in society— and that cultural change has become a major factor in democratization.
Pre-publication Comments:
Modernization, Cultural Change, and Democracy is the crowning achievement
of three decades of research on the origins, evolution, and consequences
of human values. Bold in its theorizing, pathbreaking in its methods,
breathtaking in its empirical scope, and stunning in its findings, this
book is one of the most important social science works ever produced on
the relationship between values, development, and political regimes. Inglehart
and Welzel make a compelling case for viewing development as the expansion
of human autonomy and choice, and for political freedom and democracy
as the consequence of economic development and cultural change. Anyone
who thinks modernization theory is dead will have to grapple with the
powerful logic of their evidence and argument.
Larry Diamond, Stanford University
This book is a landmark in the study of political culture and democratization.
It will polarize opinion, provoking both strong acclaim and fierce critique.
For this work presents powerful evidence contradicting several major schools
of thought in the social sciences. It will be debated and cited now, and
in years to come.
Hans-Dieter Klingemann, Fondation Nationale des Sciences Politiques,
Paris
Inglehart and Welzel’s book is a tour de force. Its comprehensive
theory of how social modernization shapes human development makes a major
contribution to our understanding of political development. This theory
is tested by a rich analysis of people’s opinions and values from
all four waves of the World Values Survey--an unprecedented social science
resource that covers 85 percent of the world's population. They conclude
that social modernization shapes the human condition in predictable ways,
and that the cultural consequences of modernization are a major force
driving democratization. Culture matters--in nurturing the conditions
for democracy to develop and in shaping the workings of the democratic
process.
Russell J. Dalton, University of California, Irvine
Cambridge University Press »»»
America's
Crisis of Values : Reality and Perception
Author: Wayne E. Baker
Has America lost its traditional values? Many politicians and religious leaders believe so, as do the majority of Americans, based on public opinion polls taken over the past several years. But is this crisis of values real?
This book explores the moral terrain of America today, analyzing the widely held perception that the nation is in moral decline. It looks at the question from a variety of angles, examining traditional values, secular values, religious values, family values, economic values, and others. Using unique data from the World Values Surveys, the largest systematic attempt ever made to document attitudes, values, and beliefs around the world, this book systematically evaluates the perceived crisis of values by comparing America's values with those of over 60 other nations.
The results are surprising. The evidence shows overwhelmingly that America has not lost its traditional values, that the nation compares favorably with most other societies, and that the culture war is largely a myth.
The gap between reality and perception does not represent mass ignorance of the facts or an overblown moral panic, Baker contends. Rather, the widespread perception of a crisis of values is a real and legitimate interpretation of life in a society that is in the middle of a fundamental transformation and that contains growing cultural contradictions. Instead of posing a problem, the author argues, this crisis rhetoric serves the valuable social function of reminding us of what it means to be American. As such, it preserves the ideological foundation of the nation.
European Values
at the Turn of the Millennium
Edited by Wil Arts and Loek Halman
This volume deals with Europe’s diversity and homogeneity at the turn of the millennium in terms of fundamental value orientations. Using data from the 1999/2000 wave of the European Values Study the contributors to this book try to identify and offer explanations and understandings of the patterns in the basic values and attitudes that have been ascertained in specific life-spheres, e.g., work and leisure time, religion, morality, society and politics, family and marriage. The result is a cultural map of Europe that captures the diversities and similarities in value profiles of the Europeans.
Sacred and
Secular: Religion and Politics Worldwide
Authors: Pippa Norris, Ronald Inglehart
August Comte, Herbert Spencer, Emile Durkheim, Max Weber, Karl Marx and Sigmund Freud predicted that religion would gradually fade in importance and cease to be significant with the emergence of industrial society. Their belief that religion was dying became conventional wisdom in the social sciences during most of the twentieth century. However, this analysis reveals that the traditional secularization thesis needs updating now. Religion has not disappeared and is unlikely to do so, even though secularization has had a surprisingly powerful negative impact on human fertility rates.
Human Beliefs
and Values
Editors: Ronald Inglehart, Miguel Basanez, Jaime Diez-Medrano, Loek Halman
and Ruud Luijkx
The Source Book is a joint venture between the values surveys WVS and EVS.
”Human Beliefs and Values” is a valuable tool for understanding how social, political, economic, and cultural attitudes differ from one society to another – and how they are changing, with economic and technological development of more than 80 societies around the world. Based on data from the World.
Islam, Gender,
Culture, and Democracy
Editor: Ronald Inglehart
This book contains a collection of articles based on the findings of the World Values Survey and the European Values Study. The focus is set on the muslim population with exciting articles on the development in the Middle East.
Rising Tide
Authors: Ronald Inglehart and Pippa Norris
The twentieth century gave rise to profound changes in traditional sex roles. This study reveals how modernization has changed cultural attitudes towards gender equality and analyzes the political consequences. It systematically compares attitudes towards gender equality worldwide, comparing almost 70 nations, ranging from rich to poor, agrarian to postindustrial.
Human Values
and Social Change
Author: Ronald Inlgehart
This volume presents findings based on a unique source of insight into the role of human values - the World Values Survey and the European Values Survey, covering 78 societies containing over 80 perscent of the world's population.
The Cultural
Diversity of European Unity
Authors: Wil Arts, Jacques Hagenaars and Loek Halman
This volume deals with the values of the people in contemporary Europe. Using the survey data from the European Values Study, a number of basic values and the dynamics of value change are explored from an economic, political, social, and religious-moral point of view.
Modernization
and Postmodernization
Author: Ronald Inglehart
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 that some changes are more likely than others, and consequently that some changes are foreseable.
Human Values
and Beliefs - a Cross-Cultural Source Book
Edited by: Ronald Inglehart, Miguel Basañez and Alejandro Moreno
This book is an invaluable tool for understanding social, political, or cultural attitudes in different countries. It provides a wealth of data that will be of interest to social scientists, journalists, and policy makers interested in economic, social and political development.
(Spanish)
Tendencias
mundiales de cambio en los valores sociales y políticos
Editors: Juan Díez-Nicolás and Ronald Inglehart
Papers from the 1993 World Values Survey conference in El Paular, Spain. Edited by Juan Díez-Nicolás and Ronald Inglehart. Foreword by Cándido Velázquez-Gaztelu.
Dentsu Research Institute: Sourcebook on Values in 23 Countries
Sourcebook on values in 23 countries published by Dou Yu Kan publishers, 1999.