A Time Machine: New Evidence of Post-Materialist Value Change

Abstract

The voluminous literature generated by Ronald Inglehart’s thesis that a shift in values from materialist to post-materialist occurs among citizens as societies modernize indicates the seminal nature of the theory. The predictive power of the theory has become more reliable with the continuation of surveys over the decades since the theory’s inception. Nevertheless, one problem remains unsolved using conventional methodology: how to determine the extent to which the proportion of post-materialists was already increasing during the years preceding the first survey in 1970. This article contributes to the solution of that problem by analyzing the values contained in 33,479 Japanese newspaper editorials from 1945 to 2000. By reflecting the public’s values, Japanese newspapers are able to maintain the largest circulations in the world. Moreover, the lifetime employment system in Japan enables us to “control for” life-cycle effects on value change, because the age of editorial board members has been constant during the postwar period. Using qualitative and quantitative techniques, I confirm the thesis that value change occurs during the process of economic development. My findings support the socialization hypothesis of the original theory, that is, that the basic values of a person reflect the socioeconomic conditions that prevailed during his or her pre-adult years.

Leadership attributes, culture and communism: analyses of cases 1998‐2008 from China

“…For example, in study 2, according to the ranking list indicating the importance of the 33 events that took place from 1998 to 2008, the three focus points are all political events. A similar study by Taniguchi (2006) suggests that long-term economic development (GDP as the variable) leads to the post-materialist shift in value in Japan, whereas our study implies the role of political culture in the specific Chinese society during the period with steady economic growth rate as well as stable, mild inflation. Further studies can include economic development to examine leadership attributes shifting.…”

Sociology and Value

“…Other studies also support modernization theory. For example, by studying the values reflected in Japanese newspaper editorials from 1945 to 2000, Masaki Taniguchi (2006) shows that value change occurred in phases of economic development. Furthermore, Scott Flanagan and Aie-Rie Lee (2000) present evidence that changes in the techno-material circumstances and economic development in Korea and Japan contributed to a shift from authoritarian values to libertarian values.…”

Youthquake 2017

“…Instead, she sees this as a reflection of the period effects in which they have been socialised, such as the ideological and volatile nature of contemporary societies. Nonetheless, the thesis is widely considered to have offered a significant contribution to the field of social and political value change, and been found to be in evidence in a range of different social, economic and temporal contexts (Barnes et al 1979;Klingemann and Fuchs 1995;Taniguchi 2006;Marthaler 2008;Janmaat and Braun 2009;Copeland 2014;Henn et al 2017). Dalton (2009) has found similar patterns in his observations of a transition in the US from an 'Old' politics rooted in material scarcity concerns towards a 'New' politics characterised by expressive quality of life priorities.…”