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

28-29). The experience of these activities does not leave people’s value orientations
unaltered, shifting priorities from survival to self-expression values.
As Inglehart and Welzel (2005: 28-29) have argued, postindustrial societies differ from
industrial societies in three major aspects. First, postindustrial societies like the ones in
Western Europe or the USA after World War II have experienced an unprecedented
phase of peace, security and economic prosperity. As people tend to pursue goals that
are short in supply (Inglehart 1977: 22), and as they strive for higher goals once material
goals (like physical and economic security) are accomplished, people tend to put
stronger emphasis on self-actualization Maslow (1954). 5
Second, as tasks in the service sector tend to be cognitively more demanding than
previous activities, broad access to higher education becomes a necessary condition for
societies to become (or stay) competitive. Postindustrial societies are therefore
characterized by higher levels of formal education. At the same time, this cognitive
mobilization leaves an imprint on people’s belief systems. “Thus, rising levels of
education, increasing cognitive and informational requirements in economic activities,
and increasing proliferation of knowledge via mass media make people intellectually
more independent, diminishing cognitive constraints on human choice” (Inglehart and
Welzel 2005: 29).
Third, as their daily work activities become more independent and destandardized,
people demand the same kind of independence, choice and creative power in other areas
of their lives. The expansion of the welfare state has contributed to the realization of
these demands, protecting the individual against certain risks that previously have been
covered by close group ties. Today, the belonging to a group, be it the family or the
church, is no longer a question of survival but of choice (Beck 2002). Families and other
group affiliations are changing “from a community of need to elective affinities” (Beck-
Gernsheim 1998).
All three processes show how people change their values as a response to the conditions
that surround them. Given the favorable circumstances described above, all three
5 Inglehart (1977, 1990) has referred to Maslow’s values of self-actualization as postmaterialistic values,
emphasizing nonphysiological needs such as (self) esteem, self-enhancement and aesthetic satisfaction.
Opposed to that are materialistic values, fulfilling material or physiological needs such as survival and
security.
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