Postmaterialism, Collective Action, and Political Protest

This paper examines the effects of postmaterialism on political protest by applying the theory of collective action. From the perspective of this theory, postmaterialism is a set of preferences for a particular class of public goods. This conceptualization allows the integration of the postmaterialism concept into a theory of political protest suggested in this paper. This theory as well as propositions derived from Ronald Inglehart's work are compared and tested using data gathered from nuclear power opponents in West Germany. The findings were as follows. First, postmaterialism has an additive effect (Inglehart's hypothesis) as well as a multiplicative effect (claimed by the theory of collective action) on legal protest, but contrary to Inglehart's hypothesis, it has no effect on illegal protest. Second, other public goods variables and incentives for protest not suggested by Inglehart explain the bulk of the variance of legal and illegal protest. Third, there are relationships between postmaterialism and the other incentive variables. This finding constitutes an extension of the proposed model of political protest. In sum, the propositions based on collective action theory are largely confirmed. The postmaterialism construct can thus be both integrated into collective action theory as a variable as well as into models of political protest based on this theory.