Modernization, Cultural Change, and Democracy: The Human Development Sequence

Modernization, Cultural Change, and Democracy: The Human Development Sequence by Inglehart, Ronald. paperback edition. ISBN: 9780521609715.

This book demonstrates that peoples basic values and beliefs are changing, in ways that affect their political, sexual, economic, and religious behavior. These changes are roughly predictable because they can be interpreted on the basis of a revised version of modernization theory presented here. Drawing on a massive body of evidence from societies containing 85% of the worlds population, the authors demonstrate that modernization is a process of human development, in which economic development triggers cultural changes that make individual autonomy, gender equality, and democracy increasingly likely.