Participation and Democracy: Dynamics, Causes ... - Jacobs University

they affect societies: Whereas industrialization is accompanied by bureaucratization,
centralization, rationalization and secularization, postindustrial societies show an
increasing emphasis on autonomy, choice, creativity and self-expression. At the same
time, both processes have changed the way people relate to authorities. Nevertheless, the
authors acknowledge that cultures, even when they are exposed to the same (changing)
conditions, remain relatively persistent, rejecting the notion of converging value
patterns. So, societies are changing, and they change into similar directions – but the
differences between these societies largely remain the same (Inglehart and Welzel 2005:
19-20).
Technological innovations have been at the heart of the first modernization process, and
they had enormous implications. Before industrialization, “the vast majority made its
living from agriculture and depended on things that came from heaven, like the sun and
rain” (Inglehart and Welzel 2005: 26). When people gained, for the first time, control
over the natural environment, this also meant challenging the authority of the church:
“Praying to God for good harvest was no longer necessary when one could depend on
fertilizer and insecticides” (ibid.). So, industrialization brought a secularization of
authority, shifting the source of authority from religion to more secular ideologies.
However, these societies were still characterized by pronounced authority relations and
socioeconomic conditions that are shaped by the disciplined, standardized and uniform
mode of industrial production.
Emancipation from authority takes place only during the postindustrialization phase,
when the focus shifts from external authority to more individual autonomy and human
choice (Inglehart and Baker 2000; Inglehart and Welzel 2005). Economically,
postindustrial societies are characterized by a shift of the major workforce from the
industrial to the service sector. Working in service-oriented professions requires
different skills than working at the production line, for example to fast process
information, to make autonomous decisions or to propose creative ideas. “Service and
knowledge workers deal with people and concepts, operating in a world where
innovation and the freedom to exercise individual judgements are essential. Creativity,
imagination, and intellectual independence become central” (Inglehart and Welzel 2005:
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