ABSTRACT
More than 35 years ago, I suggested that ‘a transformation may be taking place in the political culture of advanced industrial societies. This transformation seems to be altering the basic value priorities of given generations as a result of changing conditions influencing their basic socialization’ (Inglehart 1971: 991). Survey evidence from six West European societies revealed large differences between the value priorities of older and younger generations. Among the older cohorts, ‘materialist’ values, emphasising economic and physical security, were overwhelmingly predominant – but as one moved from older to younger birth cohorts, ‘post-materialist’ values, emphasising autonomy and self-expression, became increasingly widespread. The differences were striking. Among those aged 65 or older, materialists were fully 12 times as numerous as post-materialists; among those born after World War II (who were under 25 in 1970), post-materialists were slightly more numerous than materialists.
