Culture Shift in Advanced Industrial Society

The book begins with Inglehart saying (Page 3): "The people of different societies are characterized by enduring differences in basic attitudes, values, and skills: In other words, they have different cultures." In this book, the author explores some of the dimensions of culture and considers how these affect political views and society-as-a-whole. The methodology is a comparative survey research approach, considering the political values in a variety of states throughout the world. One key value is what Inglehart terms the continuum from materialism to postmaterialism. The former speaks to people whose values emphasize material well-being; the latter refers to those who value more self-fulfillment (Maslow's self-actualization, for those familiar with that social scientist). The book pulls together a great deal of material to make the argument that values structure economic growth and politics. Some of his concepts were under heavy criticism from other political scientists (such as postmaterialism). However, the book does what it does pretty well and leads to considerable reflection. This is technically written, with a lot of statistics. Buyer beware.