Materialism, Postmaterialism, and Public Views on Socioeconomic Policy

Abstract

This article is concerned with public views in Israel on a series of socioeconomic and labor market issues. The empirical findings were analyzed with the aim of exploring the nature of ideological orientations and value hierarchies underlying these public views. The main findings are that there is a major concern with economic recovery, at the expense of sensitivity to humanitarian, civil, and social problems; that there appears to be a pronounced emphasis on the need for law and order that, along with related preferences, suggests a pattern of an authoritarian variant of rightism; that a majority of the public gives priority to materialist goals; and that individual level and collectivist material orientations, while moderately interrelated, produce different patterns of socioeconomic attitudes and preferences. At the aggregate level, these findings seem counter to the stereotyped preference of the Israeli public for socialist policies, and the multidimensionality of materialist value orientations may have major implications for other postindustrial nations as well.