Materialist and Postmaterialist Values and Social Structure in the Nordic Countries: A Comparative Study

Abstract

The discussion on political value change in advanced industrial society is related to the value dimension which Ronald Inglehart has conceptualized as the materialist/postmaterialist dimension. According to Inglehart, the silent revolution is a gradual value change from materialist to postmaterialist values, from giving greatest priority to values which reflect a preoccupation with physical sustenance and safety values towards a heavier emphasis on belonging, self-expression, and quality of life values. The explanations for the value change rest on two hypotheses which Inglehart labels the scarcity hypothesis and the socialization hypothesis. The scarcity hypothesis is based on the assumption that an individual's values reflect the socioeconomic environment. People tend to place high priority on whatever needs are in short supply. The scarcity hypothesis is, as Inglehart remarks, very similar to the diminishing marginal utility theory in economics. As the basic economic and physical security of individuals is met, values reflecting these needs are given a lower priority in relation to other, conflicting values.' From this perspective we would expect that changes in economic conditions would almost immediately cause change in value priorities. A prolonged period of economic growth and high prosperity would lead to postmaterialist values, whereas economic decline would lead to the opposite. According to the scarcity hypothesis, strong period effects should be present with regard to different generations' value priorities. The socialization hypothesis contradicts somewhat the scarcity perspective. The relationship between socioeconomic factors and individual value priorities is not one of immediate adjustment. Early socialization tends to have an impact on adult social and political values. The socialization perspective is based on the notion of a basic human personality structure which tends to crystallize before the time an individual reaches adulthood. According to this hypothesis there will be a sizable time-lag between changes in the socioeconomic environment and changes in the political value profile. Ten to fifteen years after a change in economic conditions, the age cohorts that had spent their formative years in prosperity would enter the electorate. Although Inglehart emphasizes that the theoretical framework behind the silent revolution is based on both hypotheses,2 most of his theoretical discussion is based on the socialization perspective, which he more specifically relates to Abraham Maslow's well-known theory of a need hierarchy underlying human motivation. Maslow's theory is based on the assumption that people tend to fulfill needs in hierarchical order. Greatest