Education, Security, and Postmaterialism: A Comment on Duch and Taylor's "Postmaterialism and the Economic Condition"

Duch and Taylor (1993) contest Inglehart's thesis that secure conditions during preadult socialization contribute to developing postmaterialist values. They base their conclusions on an analysis of Euro-Barometer surveys conducted in eight West European societies and on a survey of the European Soviet Union. Their analysis provides an inadequate test of Inglehart's theory because it excludes respondents socialized during periods of major deprivation-sharply reducing the explanatory power of generational differences-and because it fails to recognize that education is strongly related to social background. Duch and Taylor also conclude that economic security is not linked with postmaterialist values at the aggregate level, confusing the consequences of economic level with those of economic growth. Analyses of the 40-nation 1990-91 World Values Survey (including data from six societies of the former Soviet Union and five Eastern European countries) demonstrate that (1) countries with high levels of GNP/capita tend to have high proportions of postmaterialists and (2) countries that have experienced high rates of economic growth tend to show relatively large differences between the values of younger and older generations.