Lund University Bachelor Thesis
Department of Political Science Autumn 2012
STVK02 Tutor: Fariborz Zelli
Consequences of Post-Materialism
Testing Predicted Changes and an Extension to the Theory of
Post-Materialism
Felicia Eklund
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Post-Materialism: Consequences, Predictions, and Extensions, Lecture notes of Political Science
This Bachelor Thesis from Lund University explores the concept of Post-Materialism, its causes, and the predicted consequences on attitudes, activities, and social structure. The study also tests Inglehart's predictions from 1977 and considers an extension to the theory regarding consumption patterns.
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Lund University Bachelor Thesis Department of Political Science Autumn 2012 STVK02 Tutor: Fariborz Zelli
Consequences of Post-Materialism
Testing Predicted Changes and an Extension to the Theory of
Post-Materialism
Felicia Eklund
Table of Contents
- Introduction
- 1.1 Background
- 1.2 Purpose and Research Question
- 1.3 Hypothesis
- 1.4 Theoretical Perspective
- 1.5 Operational Definitions
- 1.5.1 Changes in Attitudes: Concern for the Environment
- 1.5.2 Changes in Activity: Political Participation Through Action
- 1.5.3 Changes in the Social Structure: Gender Equality
- 1.5.4 Other Possible Change: Consumption Patterns.
- 1.6 Method and Material
- 1.7 Limitation
- 1.8 Disposition
- What Post-Materialism is
- 2.1 Causes to a Shift from Materialism to Post-Materialism
- Social Changes as a Consequence of Post-Materialism
- 3.1 Concern for the Environment
- 3.2 Political Participation Through Action
- 3.3 Gender Equality
- Related Change: Consumption
- 4.1 Amount of Consumption
- 4.2 Sustainable Consumption
- Summary
- Conclusions
- References
- Appendix
Materialism, as opposed to those with a low degree. In 1977, Inglehart predicted some changes would occur as a result of Post-Materialism, and I will test if he is correct in these predictions over 30 years later. The changes predicted are amongst others environmental concern, political participation and gender equality. Hence, there are three dimensions of predicted social changes that I will investigate.
- Changes in attitudes → Environmental concern
- Changes in activity → Political participation
- Changes in social structure → Gender equality I also want to know if it is possible to include an other variable now, in the 21th century as an extension to the theory of Post-Materialism.
- Changes not predicted by the theory → Consumption patterns I think it is important to investigate which factors in society that affect the attitudes and activity of its members as well as the social structure, and in this case I will examine if Post-Material values are one of the factors that have an influence on these three dimensions. I include consumption because I am interested in the ideas of a re- valuation of consumption. The level of consumption in industrialized countries is by many seen as unsustainable. 20 percent of the richest countries in the world account for 80 percent of worldwide consumption (Chasek 2010, p 325). From an environmental perspective, it is not sustainable to equalize this condition by allowing developing countries to catch up. Instead industrialized countries must cut down on their consumption, and preferable change the way they consume. If it turns out that Post-Material values would consequence in the Industrialized world to actually consume less or in a more sustainable way, then that would be considered a positive development. Inglehart does not define values as a concept, he only defines the operational difference between attitudes and values, being that values are less situation-bound, more general and more resistant for modification than attitudes are (Inglehart, 1977, p 29). I will therefore use the same definition of values as Björn Badersten does. A value is something that is good or bad, or better or worst than another one. Values are often, but not necessarily, connected to some sort of action, or absence on action. Values can also be related to a specific state of mind of what is good in a specific situation. (Badersten, 2006, p 21-22) The definition of social change is any alternation in the cultural, structural or ecological characteristics of a social system such as society (Johnson, 2000, p 285). I here refer to change in social practices and structures for which a change in the though process of people is necessary. This means it reflexes a consciousness of the public that is relevant for the development of society, and I therefore also include attitudes as a dimension of the social sphere relevant for social change, which is a slight stretch of the original meaning of the term.
Inglehart uses the term society in his work when he talks about geographical entities. Here, I use the term country instead. This is because the empirical material used is collected by country, and I want to avoid confusion.
1.3 Hypothesis
Inglehart predicts that people with a higher degree of Post-Materialism will have a greater increase in their concern for the environment, than people with a low degree. They are also more likely to participate politically trough other channels than the traditional ones, and gender equality is more likely to improve in societies with a high degree of Post-Materialism. My hypothesis is that this is correct. The causal chain of why a shift in values would cause social changes is shown in the figure below. In chapter 2 I will further explain what Post- Materialism is, here only a short summery is presented. The causal mechanism that would make Post-Materialism lead to measurable social changes is that Post- Materialists identify and prioritize their needs differently. This creates an internal change in them, which makes them look differently at themselves and their environment, which is suggested to change their attitudes, actions and in the long run the social structure. Post-Materialists have different lifestyles than Materialist, they engage more in specific political issues and their trust for governmental institutions is lower (Inglehart, 1977, p 12-16). They also tend to identify themselves as “citizens of the world” as opposed to their local town or country (Inglehart, 1977, p 330-333). Concern for the environment. More interest in political issues in combination with cosmopolitan identification is suggested to lead to more concern for the environment, since Post-Materialists see themselves as a part of the whole world. Hence their attitude to global issues such as sustainable development is supposed to be more of a top-of-mind issue for them (Inglehart, 1977, p 14).
1.5.1 Changes in Attitudes: Concern for the Environment
For the re-valuation of the environment and the economy, I have chosen the same index for. The index is of normative character since I could not find a better fitting indicator. This is hence the only variable that does not measure concrete activity, it only indicates whether the public prioritizes protection of the environment or creation of economic growth and jobs. Although this data only covers opinions, I find it important to control for. I test this variable because these priorities could indicate environmental attitudes and awareness. Awareness of environmental issues is the first step to act more sustainable from an environmental perspective on an individual level, as well as for voting for greener parties. To prioritize the environment over the economy gives a hint of development in this direction.
1.5.2 Changes in Activity: Political Participation Through Action
Political participation is said to change in a way where protests against the elite will be more common (Inglehart, 1977, p 16). Therefore I will test this statement through data on political action (petitions, boycotts, demonstrations and so on). I use this operational definition instead of for example election participation, since the change is said to be of a challenging character, as opposed to the traditional channels to participate politically.
1.5.3 Changes in the Social Structure: Gender Equality
The indicator I have chosen to estimate the change in gender roles is data on inequalities in pay in the industry between men and women. I have chosen this indicator since it gives a picture of how valued women's work are in relation to the work by men. Differences can either be due to how high positions females get
in the industry, or on whether their work is not as valued as high as their male co- workers in terms of unequal pay for the same work. If there is a great difference, this index it tells something about how gender-related qualities are viewed upon, no matter the reason for unequal pay, and hence it gives a picture of gender roles in the countries from a perspective of gender equality.
1.5.4 Other Possible Change: Consumption Patterns
Life-styles are much harder to find indicators for, especially since the literature on Post-Materialism does not specify in what way these would change. Therefore, I have chosen to try a variable the theory does not explicit predict changes in: consumption. The reason I have chosen to see if Post-Materialism could lead to a change in consumption patterns is that Post-Materialists identify their needs differently. Since they prioritize economical needs low, could this lead to a change in life-style that would involve a decline in consumption? Here I use data from more sources than Quality of Government, since this is a controversial extension to the theory of Post-Materialism.
1.6 Method and Material
The main material for this thesis is the political science literature on Post- Materialism (Inglehart, 1977), since the purpose of this work is to test the theory of Post-Materialism. I complement this with other literature on political science along with statistical material from Quality of Government Dataset and scientific articles. Quantitative, statistical method is used to examine countries that have a similar degree of Post-Materialism, but differ in other variables. I do my selection of cases entirely based on the countries' position on the scale of Post-Materialism from the most resent survey, being from 2008. The countries are ranked on a scale from 0 being the most Materialist (which is the opposite of Post-Materialist), to 5 being the most Post-Materialist. The research presenting the levels of Post- Materialism, that I base my selection on, is performed by World Value Survey's cross-section data (QoG Codebook “wvs_pm12”, p 245-246) (see appendix). I use two clusters with six countries in each, from each end of the scale of Post-Materialism. In the cluster with the highest level of Post-Materialism (2.67 to 3.04), the countries are (highest fist) Andorra, Switzerland, Norway, Canada, Sweden and Germany. In the cluster with the lowest level of Post-Materialism (1.1 to 1.3) the countries are (lowest fist): Albania, China, Pakistan, Hungary, Taiwan and Russia. I use several cases in order to make it easier to generalize the results. I will use these clusters in time-series diagrams to be able to see if their patterns attitudes, actions and social structures have changed from the 1950's until
- I have chosen to start in the 1950's where data is available, because the
1.7 Limitation
My research question has a very high level of abstraction, even if it is a specific phenomenon I examine. I will therefore limit it by only getting data for these four variables, with the twelve cases I have stated. As presented, three of the variables are my operative definitions of what the theory states will change in terms of attitudes, activity and social structure, and consumption is what I think could be an additional variable effected by Post-Materialism. One of the limits of my thesis is that there is a risk of ecological fallacy. This means that those who are interviewed about their Material/Post-Material values might not be the same people who have taken part in the research about political participation, environmental concern, gender equality or consumption. To check for this risk, I would need to do interviews myself, to see if it is the same people, which I do not have time or space to do in this thesis. Another limitation is that I do not check for if the suggested causes for Post-Materialism also could be the reasons for changes in attitudes, activity and social structure. Since they cause the first change (change towards Post-Material values), it might just as well be the cause to the second change too (the social changes). Here, I will not test if the variables suggested to cause Post-Materialism correlates with the social changes, which would open up for them being the real reason for social change, not Post-Materialism. Here I only argue for the logic of a causal connection between Post-Materialism and social change.
1.8 Disposition
My disposition is made in a way so that it is possible to attain a full picture of why Post-Materialism would lead to changes in attitudes, activity and social structure. I will start by giving a summary of what Post-Materialism as a phenomenon is, by the presenting the way it is measured. Then I will outline the mechanisms in society that are suggested to have caused a shift from Materialism to Post- Materialism. This is necessary as these are the premises that are underlying a causal relationship between Post-Material values and social changes. I will analyse whether it is true as the theory claims, that attitudes, action and social structure are affected by the countries' level of Post-Materialism. In addition I will examine if Post-Materialism can be extended to changes in consumption patterns. If it turns out that Post-Materialism does not manifest itself through any measurable social changes, then it is not very useful to political science and opens the theory up to criticism.
2 What Post-Materialism is
To fully understand what it means to have a high level of Post-Materialism, it is necessary to show in what way Post-Materialism is measured. The material used to measure the change in values from Materialism to Post-Materialism, is based on surveys asking people to prioritize a number of statements. The World Value Survey is an institute that performs independent surveys. The method they use is interviews. The interviews regarding Post-Materialism are introduced with the line “ There is a lot of talk these days about what the aims of this country should be for the next 10 years... ”. The respondents are then asked to prioritize between 12 statements, and put the one they find most important first. The text in italic below the statements explain what needs the statements are considered to represent. If the respondents prioritize the statements regarded to be Materialistic high, they are considered to be Materialists. If they prioritize the statements regarded to be Post-Materialistic high, they are considered to be Post- Materialists. The following six statements are regarded to be Materialistic:
• Fighting rising prices.
• Maintaining a high rate of economic growth.
• Maintain a stable economy.
(These tree represent economic security)
- Maintaining order in the nation.
- The fight against crime.
- Making sure that this county has strong defence forces. (These three represent physical security) The following six statements are regarded to be Post-Materialistic:
- Seeing that people have more say in how things get decided at work and in their community.
- Giving the people more say in important government decisions.
- Progress toward a less impersonal, more humane society. (These three represent needs of belonging and esteem)
- Protecting freedom of speech.
- Progress towards a society where ideas are more important than money. (These two represent intellectual needs)
- Trying to make our cities and countryside more beautiful. (This represents aesthetic needs)
Education. Higher education is the third suggested reason for value change. This is because it is a tool to train cognitive skills, and has an effect on the students political awareness. But Inglehart notes that it is not necessarily causal in this direction, that education would make people Post-Materialists, it could be the other way around, that values inspires them to study (Inglehart, 1977, p 9-10). Higher level of education is supposed to reflect more than intake of information. It creates general cognitive development, informal communication patterns and a certain way of thinking (Inglehart, 1977, p. 75). Informal communication patterns refer to the idea that people with higher education talk to different kinds of people than uneducated, or find other channels of information. Information. Some argue that we are living in an age of information. Inglehart states that the public will be more interested in their surroundings as a causal effect of greater access to information, which is the last reason for a shift from Material values to Post-Material values. This will result in more citizen participation, and what he calls “elite-challenging” activities, as the public will want to have more say in the process of decision-making. (Inglehart, 1977, p 4). The media plays a key role in the distribution of contemporary news and information to the public (Ingehart, 1977, p 11). It becomes more important to the public to keep itself updated. New techniques makes this easier, which adds up to increased awareness among the public.
3 Social Changes as a Consequence of
Post-Materialism
The theory of Post-Materialism emphasizes changing values. But if values change, other changes could occur as a result of this. This is not the main focus of the theory, but it suggests some social changes. Inglehart states that there is a full set of changes going on, among others he mentions gender roles, life-styles, ecology, economy, politics and morals (Inglehart, 1977, p 6-7). Erich Fromm is a sociologist concerned with what aspects affects changes in behaviour. According to him, the modern definition of “activity” is purposive behaviour that seeks to result in socially useful changes. Alienated activity is when these changes happens incident to external and internal forces, while non alienated activity means that one perceive himself as a subject of the activity, and hence doing it on purpose (Fromm, 2003, p 120). To me, the values prioritized by Post-Materialists, such as more say in decision-making, ideas count and freedom of speech, indicates that non alienated activity in society should be important to them, which could lead to different forms of social changes. I will here concentrate on changes in attitudes for concern for the environment relative to the concern for the economy. Next I will look at the way people participate politically by measuring the amount of political action. The social structure, gender equality, will be checked for by looking at the differences in pay. In the next chapter I will in addition to this bring up possible related change in life-styles, by looking at consumption patterns.
3.1 Concern for the Environment
In the 1960's, environmental issues started to slowly become concerns in the consciousness of peoples' minds, as a concern for the future of humanity (Bardi, 2011, p 6-9). Since the 1980's, a rapid growth in environmental groups have emerged and have become a significant force in most industrialized countries (Carter, 2007, p 142-144). Post-Materialists are identify themselves as cosmopolitans, and they are more involved in political issues. This suggests they could be concerned for global challenges, such as the environment. Inglehart states that one of the political issues Post-Materialist could get more involved in is concern for ecology and protection of the environment. To test this, data complied by the institute World Value Survey have been used. In the survey people have been asked to chose the statement that comes closer to their own opinion. (1) Protecting the environment should be given priority, even if
other forms of protest activity (Inglehart, 1977, p 15). Inglehart also argues that the the time the process of change will take depends on how skilled the public is at expressing it's views, and on how open the given political framework is. The forms of election, number of strong parties, and the freedom of the press are some of the factors in the political structure that should be taken into account (Inglehart, 1977, p 6). The data used to test these forms of action is from World Value Survey and shows the amount of political action. The respondents have been asked how many of the following political actions they actually have carried out: signing a petition, joining in boycotts, attending lawful demonstrations, joining unofficial strikes or occupying buildings or factories. The number of these five statements that the respondents claim they have participated in, then rank them on a scale from 0 to 5 (QoG code book, “wvs_act” p 244). Higher numbers on the scale means more political action. Materialist Post-Materialist Note that the early increasing trend in political action among the Post-Materialist countries is due to that the diagram starts in 1962, and then jump straight to 1990, while the Material countries miss data from before 1990. The part where both of the diagrams have data, between 1990 and 2000, still indicates that there is a difference in amount of political action between Materialist and Post-Materialist countries. The most previous data for the Materialist countries have results between 0.25 and 0.47, while the most Post-Materialist countries have results between 0. and 1.65. This indicates that these forms of political actions are more frequently occurring in Post-Material countries. The amount of political action therefore seems to follow the predicted pattern. In the diagram of the Materialist countries Albania and Hungary have a decrease in political action, while Russia have a slight increase. In the Post-Material countries only Sweden have an increase, while the political action in Canada, Norway and Germany is decreasing. One explanation to an early increase in political participation through action is the higher level of education, one of the suggested reasons for Post- Materialism. This is suggested to create a shift in the distribution of political skills, which creates an increasing potential for political participation (Inglehart,
1977, p 367). Therefore it is unexpected that the trend over time is showing a decline in political action in three out of four Post-Materialist countries. Education is suggested to enhance feelings of citizen duties. This, in combination with cognitive skills which makes the public confident about their understanding of the political system is suggested as an alternative explanation to the expected increase in traditional political participation in the most Post-Materialistic countries. Interest in politics is said to consequence in increased election participation, the traditional channel for political participation (Denny and Doyle, 2008, p 291-293), and could be expected to do the same for these alternative ways of participation too. Media is contributing with a large part of the updates of what is doing on around locally, and in the rest of the world. According to Valenzuela the information media distribute is the same information most people repeat when asked about a specific political issue, which they have not reflected on to any extent (Valenzuela, 2009, p 757). To organize through alternative channels, such as political action, is often a sign of stronger engagement though. Hence it is strange that the trend is going down in the Post-Materialist countries.
3.3 Gender Equality
Another issue Post-Materialism are suggested to be concerned about is gender equality. New life-styles have emerged, and this could lead to a structural change in gender equality. It is hard to give a fair picture of how equal a society is in comparison to another one, in terms of gender equality. Different indicators one can consider are percent of school attendances by males and females, attitudes in which of the genders that makes a better boss or percentage of women in the parliament. Here, the indicator used is data on the changes over time in pay inequalities across industrial categories in the manufacturing sector. The data is compiled by the United Nations International Development Organization. (QoG code book, “utip_ipi” p 193-194) Larger numbers means greater pay inequality. Materialist Post-Materialist