Value orientation as a contributing factor in protest potential in Western societies: The postmaterialism thesis reconsidered

Abstract

The theory of postmaterialism contains the proposition that basic values are changing in advanced industrial societies. Furthermore, the theory contains the propositions that individuals in these societies can be classified according to clusters of value orientations and that political behavior can be predicted according to these orientations. Among other things, this theory has been put forward as a powerful explanatory model for unconventional political action in advanced industrial societies. This study utilizes survey material from Germany to construct a model that explores the effect of value orientation on unconventional political action. The study then goes on to investigate the links between value orientation and other leading theories of unconventional political action. Until now, nothing has been attempted in the way of investigating empirically the specific factors put forward as causal agents regarding postmaterialists' hypothesized propensity to participate in unconventional political action. Likewise, little work has been done in the way of investigating the relationship, if any, between postmaterialism and important other theories of such behavior. This project then has as its central foci the testing of the primary hypotheses regarding the basis for value orientation and unconventional political action, and whether postmaterialists' hypothesized propensity to participate in such activities may be the result of an underlying relationship between value orientation and factors that make up much of the conceptual landscape of other leading theories of unconventional political action. The results indicate that value orientation does have a weak direct effect on unconventional political acts, but that integrating value orientation and other theories results in more powerful explanatory models of such activity, and serve to more fully explain the manner in which value orientation affects political behavior.