Modernization, cultural change, and democracy the human development sequence

• Main Author: Inglehart, Ronald (Author)
• Other Authors: Welzel, Christian 1964-
• Format: Book
• Language: English
• Published: New York Cambridge University Press 2005; Cambridge, UK
• Subjects: Social change; Social values; Democracy; Democratization
• Online Access: Click Here to View Status and Holdings.
• Physical Description: x, 333 pages illustrations 24 cm
• Bibliography: Includes bibliographical references (p. 301-321) and index
• ISBN: 0521846951 (hardback); 0521609712 (pbk.); 9780521846950

This book demonstrates that people's basic values and beliefs are changing, in ways that affect their political, sexual, economic, and religious behavior. These changes are roughly predictable because they can be interpreted on the basis of a revised version of modernization theory presented here. Drawing on a massive body of evidence from societies containing 85% of the world's population, the authors demonstrate that modernization is a process of human development, in which economic development triggers cultural changes that make individual autonomy, gender equality, and democracy increasingly likely.