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Title: Modernization and Postmodernization by Ronald Inglehart ISBN: 0-691-01180-X Publisher: Princeton Univ Pr Pub. Date: 05 May, 1997 Format: Paperback Volumes: 1 List Price(USD): $17.95 |
Average Customer Rating: 2 (1 review)
Rating: 2
Summary: Opinion Polls are no substitute for objective research
Comment: Ronald Inglehart looks at a database of changes in public opinion in 43 countries and finds that, around 1990, a majority of people in the U.S. and other advanced industrial societies ranked "postmodern" or "postmaterialist" values above "modern" or "materialist" values. In third place and rapidly disappearing is "traditional" values.
These new attitudes have important implications for marketing products and for politics. The rise of Green parties in Europe, for example, is an expected development from these underlying cultural changes. (A similar development has been delayed in the U.S. because we don't allow fractional voting or proportional representation.)
For people interested in politics, this is familiar territory. It was covered by William Maddox and Stuart Lilie's 1984 book, "Beyond Liberal and Conservative: Reassessing the Political Spectrum," Alvin Toffler's work, David Boaz's edited collection for the Cato Institute, "Left, Right and Babyboom: America's New Politics," (1986) and many editorials in Reason, Forbes FYI, and similar publications. Inglehart says this is the first empirical research to find these trends are shared by all developed countries, that postmodernists now outnumber modernists and traditionalists, and that culture can change or be changed by economic conditions.
I found this to be a valuable piece of research, but was repeatedly put off by the decidedly leftist slant of Inglehart's work. The book is riddled with references to Marxist history, economics, psychology, and sociology. He is often saying Marx "made an important contribution in this area" but that recent events have proven him wrong, but perhaps his underlying theory was correct. The conservative "goal" of "laissez faire capitalism" is seldom mentioned without referring to the "savage injustices" that accompanied that brief period when such a system existed, and how government intervention "saved" us from this plight.
Inglehart has similar opinions on religious belief, which is variously defined as reactionary, nativist, and potentially violent. The idea that an organized religion would be hospitable to reason and science appears never to cross Inglehart's mind, though any student of history (or contemporary Catholic) knows otherwise.
A few tips of an author's ideological hat doesn't hurt an otherwise good piece of work, but this author's anti-market and anti-religious beliefs are on display on every page. I was left doubting his ability to report the truth.
The opinion surveys Inglehart relies on are problematic in many ways, some of which he admits. What does it mean when someone says he puts a "higher priority" on emotion or ideas than on reason and science? Clearly not that he wishes to live in a society without reason and science. Maybe he is sending a signal to the pollster that he is trying to get in touch with his spiritual self? Or maybe he is uncomfortable being called upon to defend reason and science, not having had any training in either, and would rather defend imagination and emotion, for which any answer is the right one?
Similarly, the whole ranking exercise is dubious because there are no consequences for ranking too highly things one might wish for or admire in abstract but seldom use or respect in practice. This is a common failure of opinion surveys. Inglehart's citations purporting to show how values influence behavior is off the mark; we know they do, the question is whether his ranking exercise accurately captures those values that influence behavior.
This book came highly recommended and I looked forward to its insights. I was more than a little disappointed.
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Title: Culture Shift in Advanced Industrial Society by Ronald Inglehart ISBN: 0691022968 Publisher: Princeton Univ Pr Pub. Date: 01 December, 1989 List Price(USD): $27.95 |
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Title: Patterns of Democracy: Government Forms and Performance in Thirty-Six Countries by Arend Lijphart ISBN: 0300078935 Publisher: Yale Univ Pr Pub. Date: August, 1999 List Price(USD): $19.00 |
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Title: Culture Matters: How Values Shape Human Progress by Lawrence E. Harrison, Samuel P. Huntington ISBN: 0465031765 Publisher: HarperCollins Pub. Date: 03 April, 2001 List Price(USD): $19.00 |
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Title: Making Democracy Work by Robert D. Putnam, Robert Leonardi, Raffaella Y. Nanetti ISBN: 0691037388 Publisher: Princeton Univ Pr Pub. Date: 27 May, 1994 List Price(USD): $21.95 |
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Title: Transitions from Authoritarian Rule: Tentative Conclusions About Uncertain Democracies by Philippe C. Schmitter, Guillermo A. O'Donnell, Woodrow Wilson International C ISBN: 0801826829 Publisher: Johns Hopkins Univ Pr Pub. Date: November, 1986 List Price(USD): $17.95 |
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