POSTMATERIALISM AND THE ECONOMIC CONDITION

The postmaterialism concept developed by Ronald Inglehart has generate d a considerable body of literature over the past couple of decades. O ne of the critical arguments concerning postmaterialism is that econom ic security or conditions at the early period of political maturation have a strong and long-lasting influence on postmaterialist attitudes later in life. Employing multivariate analysis, this paper tests the n otion that early economic experiences have a lasting effect on postmat erialist values as measured by Inglehart. The data are collected from eight Western European nations over the 1973-84 period. These findings are supplemented with a recent survey of the European portion of the former Soviet Union. The results of this analysis suggest that early e conomic conditions do not actually affect how respondents rank Ingleha rt's postmaterialist items. Education and economic conditions at the t ime of the survey are much more important explanations for variations in the postmaterialist measure.