Human development as a general theory of social change: a multi-level and cross-cultural perspective
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Berlin: WZB - Wissenschaftszentrum Berlin für Sozialforschung , 2001. (Veröffentlichungsreihe der Abteilung Institutionen und Sozialer Wandel des Forschungsschwerpunkts Sozialer Wandel, Institutionen und Vermittlungsprozesse des Wissenschaftszentrums Berlin für Sozialforschung; No. FS III 01-201).
Research output: Working paper › Working papers
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TY - UNPB
T1 - Human development as a general theory of social change
T2 - a multi-level and cross-cultural perspective
AU - Welzel, Christian
AU - Inglehart, Ronald
AU - Klingemann, Hans-Dieter
PY - 2001
Y1 - 2001
N2 - This paper demonstrates that socioeconomic development, cultural modernization, and democratic regime performance constitute a coherent syndrome of social changea syndrome whose common focus has not properly been specified by standard modernization theory. We specify this syndrome as Human Development, arguing that its three components have a common focus on individual choice. Socioeconomic development broadens individual choice by giving people more resources; cultural modernization gives rise to aspirations that lead people to seek for individual choice; and democracy extends individual choice by codifying legal opportunities. Analysis of data from 80 societies demonstrates: (1) that a universal resource-aspiration-opportunity syndrome is present at the individual, national and supra-national levels across 80 nations and 8 cultural zones; (2) that this Human Development syndrome is endogenously shaped by a causal effect from resources and aspirations on opportunities; and (3) that elite integrity or good governanceʺ is a strong exogenous determinant of the Human Development syndrome as a whole.
AB - This paper demonstrates that socioeconomic development, cultural modernization, and democratic regime performance constitute a coherent syndrome of social changea syndrome whose common focus has not properly been specified by standard modernization theory. We specify this syndrome as Human Development, arguing that its three components have a common focus on individual choice. Socioeconomic development broadens individual choice by giving people more resources; cultural modernization gives rise to aspirations that lead people to seek for individual choice; and democracy extends individual choice by codifying legal opportunities. Analysis of data from 80 societies demonstrates: (1) that a universal resource-aspiration-opportunity syndrome is present at the individual, national and supra-national levels across 80 nations and 8 cultural zones; (2) that this Human Development syndrome is endogenously shaped by a causal effect from resources and aspirations on opportunities; and (3) that elite integrity or good governanceʺ is a strong exogenous determinant of the Human Development syndrome as a whole.
KW - Politics
KW - Menschheit
KW - Soziokultureller Wandel
KW - Menschheit
KW - Sozialkultureller Wandel
M3 - Working papers
T3 - Veröffentlichungsreihe der Abteilung Institutionen und Sozialer Wandel des Forschungsschwerpunkts Sozialer Wandel, Institutionen und Vermittlungsprozesse des Wissenschaftszentrums Berlin für Sozialforschung
BT - Human development as a general theory of social change
PB - WZB - Wissenschaftszentrum Berlin für Sozialforschung
CY - Berlin
ER -