Societal development, social stratification and power- and achievement-values Inglehart’s scarcity hypothesis and the theory of the social production functions in the comparative study of values

Abstract

ABSTRACTPower- and achievement-values are seen to be important for productivity and societal stability. But what exact factors drive the forces to adhere to power- and achievement-values? In this study, the focus is on societal development and social stratification. Research on values in general often is not very careful in the distinction between different levels of analysis although the necessity has been outlined in several contributions to theoretical thinking in sociology. That is why this article comes from the position of methodological individualism and highlights explicitly the different levels of analysis and their assumed interrelations. It is shown that Inglehart’s scarcity hypothesis as an explaining mechanism has some weaknesses. As an alternative, the theory of social production functions is suggested that is capable to provide a framework of compatible societal- and individual-level mechanisms. The empirical analysis is based on data of the fourth round of the European Social Survey containing about 50,000 respondents in 31 countries. The comparability of power- and achievement-values across countries and across the societal and the individual level is tested by using two-level confirmatory factor analysis. The results show that comparability across countries and across both levels can be confirmed. Furthermore, opposing relations for societal development and social stratification are found: The higher the societal development, the lower the priority of power- and achievement-values; the higher the social stratification position, the more important the power- and achievement-values. Therefore, the scarcity hypothesis is rejected and the need for an alternative explanation is reinforced.