Cultural Evolution

Presents and tests a theory that helps explain the rise of environmentalist parties, gender equality, and same sex marriage - and the reaction that led to Brexit and the election of Trump.

Ronald F. Inglehart (Author)

9781108464772, Cambridge University Press

Paperback / softback, published 4 April 2019

294 pages, 58 b/w illus. 4 tables
22.8 x 15.1 x 1.6 cm, 0.38 kg

'Inglehart seeks to reach beyond the scholarly audience. To do so, he eschews presenting the daunting array of statistical estimates that are the norm for such analyses. Instead, the extensive evidence is presented through well crafted figures that are self-sufficient in conveying the hypothesis at hand, the array of nations being examined, and the results obtained. Further, he eschews 'academes' for clarity. The result is a spare, accessible, masterful, and elegant book.' George E. Marcus, Political Science Quarterly

Cultural Evolution argues that people's values and behavior are shaped by the degree to which survival is secure; it was precarious for most of history, which encouraged heavy emphasis on group solidarity, rejection of outsiders, and obedience to strong leaders. For under extreme scarcity, xenophobia is realistic: if there is just enough land to support one tribe and another tribe tries to claim it, survival may literally be a choice between Us and Them. Conversely, high levels of existential security encourage openness to change, diversity, and new ideas. The unprecedented prosperity and security of the postwar era brought cultural change, the environmentalist movement, and the spread of democracy. But in recent decades, diminishing job security and rising inequality have led to an authoritarian reaction. Evidence from more than 100 countries demonstrates that people's motivations and behavior reflect the extent to which they take survival for granted - and that modernization changes them in roughly predictable ways. This book explains the rise of environmentalist parties, gender equality, and same-sex marriage through a new, empirically-tested version of modernization theory.

Introduction: overview of this book
1. Evolutionary modernization and cultural change
2. The rise of postmaterialist values in the West and the World
3. Global cultural patterns
4. The end of secularization?
5. Cultural change, slow and fast: the distinctive trajectory of norms governing gender equality and sexual orientation
6. The feminization of society and declining willingness to fight for one's country: the individual-level component of the long peace
7. Development and democracy
8. The changing roots of happiness
9. The silent revolution in reverse: the rise of Trump and the authoritarian populist parties
10. The coming of artificial intelligence society.

Subject Areas: Comparative politics [JPB]