Evolutionary Modernization Theory: Why People’s Motivations are Changing

DOI: https://doi.org/10.15826/csp.2017.1.2.010

Abstract

A society’s culture is shaped by the extent to which its people grow up feeling that survival is secure or insecure. This article presents a revised version of modernization theory – Evolutionary Modernization Theory – which argues that economic and physical insecurity are conducive to xenophobia, strong in-group solidarity, authoritarian politics and rigid adherence to their group’s traditional cultural norms – and conversely that secure conditions lead to greater tolerance of outgroups, openness to new ideas and more egalitarian social norms. Earlier versions of this theory have been presented in publications by Inglehart, Norris, Welzel, Abramson, Baker and others (Inglehart & Baker, 2000; Inglehart & Norris, 2004; Inglehart & Welzel, 2005; Welzel, 2013), and a forthcoming book (Inglehart, 2018) tests this theory more extensively, analyzing survey data gathered from 1970 to 2014 in over 100 countries containing more than 90 percent of the world’s population.

Author Biography

Ronald F. Inglehart, University of Michigan, Ann Arbor, USA and Higher School of Economics, Moscow, Russia

Ronald F. Inglehart is Lowenstein Professor of Political Science, Research Professor of the Institute for Social Research at the University of Michigan. He is the author of the following books: The Silent Revolution (1977); Culture Shift in Advanced Industrial Society (1990); Value Change in Global Perspective (1995); Modernization and Postmodernization (1997); Rising Tide: Gender Equality and Cultural Change around the World (2003) (co-authored with Pippa Norris); Sacred and Secular: Religion and Politics Worldwide (2004) (co-authored with Pippa Norris); Modernization, Cultural Change and Democracy: The Human Development Sequence (2005) (co-authored with Christian Welzel).

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Changing Societies & Personalities, Volume 1, No. 2
Published
2017-09-29
How to Cite
Inglehart, R. (2017). Evolutionary Modernization Theory: Why People’s Motivations are Changing. Changing Societies & Personalities, 1(2), 136-151. doi:10.15826/csp.2017.1.2.010
Citation Formats
Issue
Vol. 1, No. 2 (2017): Special issue "Multiple Modernities as an interpretive paradigm: strength and shortcomings"
Section
Articles