Modernization, Cultural Change, and Democracy

Ronald Inglehart is a professor of political science and program director at the Institute for Social Research at the University of Michigan. He helped found the Euro-Barometer surveys and directs the World Values Surveys. His most recent books are Modernization and Postmodernization: Cultural, Economic and Political Change in 43 Societies (Princeton University Press, 1997), (with Pippa Norris) Rising Tide: Gender Equality in Global Perspective (Cambridge University Press, 2003), and (with Pippa Norris) Sacred and Secular: Religion and Politics Worldwide (Cambridge University Press, 2004). Author of almost 200 publications, he has been a visiting professor or scholar in France, Germany, the Netherlands, Switzerland, Japan, South Korea, Taiwan, Brazil, and Nigeria and has served as a consultant to the US State Department and the European Union. Christian Welzel is Associate Professor of Political Science at International University Bremen where he has been teaching since 2002. He holds a PhD in Political Science from the University of Potsdam. He is a two time recipient of a grant from the Institute for Social Research and has published numerous articles in or contributions to the European Journal of Political Research, Comparative Politics, Comparative Sociology, International Journal of Comparative Sociology, Political Culture and Democracy (Westview Press, 2002), among others. He has also published extensively in the German language.

• Part I. The Forces Shaping Value Change: 1. A revised theory of modernization; 2. Value change and the persistence of cultural traditions; 3. Exploring the unknown: predicting mass responses; 4. Intergenerational value change; 5. Value changes over time; 6. Individualism, self-expression, and civic virtues; Part II. Consequences of Value Change: 7. The causal link between democratic values and democratic institutions: theoretical discussion; 8. The causal link between democratic values and democratic institutions: empirical analyses; 9. Social forces, collective action, and international events; 10. Individual level values and system level democracy: the problem of cross-level analysis; 11. Elements of a pro-democratic civic culture; 12. Gender equality, emancipative values, and democracy; 13. The Implications of human development; Conclusion: an emancipative theory of democracy.

'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 theorizsng, 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