In an Environment of Insecurity

Abstract

In a recent article, Ronald Inglehart (1981) reexamined his hypothesis that postwar affluence has led to intergeneration change from materialist to postmaterialist values among Western publics. Using data covering the seventies, he came to the conclusion that postmaterialism continues to prevail in an “environment of insecurity.” In this article, we will call into question both this conclusion and the hypothesis of generational change. In the first section it will be shown that the two core assumptions of postmaterialism theory can be combined in different ways and that at least two interpretations can be found in Inglehart's writings. In the second part, we attempt to test both models empirically using the same data as Inglehart (1981) did, yet applying appropriate techniques for cohort analysis and covering more time points. The cohort effects and trend effects are estimated with the program NONMET. Neither in Western Europe nor in West Germany do the patterns of value change correspond to either version of postmaterialism theory.