Postmaterialism of the Left and Right

Abstract

In his attempt to predict future political conflict, Ronald Inglehart writes that traditional class cleavages and ideologies will slowly erode and be replaced by the dominant value orientation of postmaterialism. This article shows that Inglehart's postmaterialists are not a unified social and political group. Postmaterialists of the right have attitudes that differ significantly from postmaterialists of the left about the ways in which society should be directed. These conflicting values and societal goals have their basis in social class and ideology, and the existence of the two groups suggests that political conflict will have its origin in intragenerational as well as intergenerational cleavages. This distinction also suggests that future public policy issues will continue to be framed in ideological, in addition to postmaterialist, terms.