The International Comparison of Post-materialism: The Effects of Welfare Characteristics and Individual Security

Abstract

This study compares civilian post-materialism levels of 10 advanced countries by examining the effects of welfare characteristics and individual security on postmaterialistic values. The results indicate that individuals’ post-materialistic values are more staunchly determined by characteristics of their countries’ welfare and level of individual security than economic levels of individuals and nations. Moreover, this study finds that the type of welfare system and the level of welfare provision of a particular country have a significant relationship with insecure life event experiences and a sense of insecurity among individual civilians. Overall, research results show that, as for the countries having reached a certain level of economic development, the issue at stake is not the height of national economic development, but the amount of the nation’s economic resources needed to help secure the lives of its people. The research also shows that the security of life by welfare provisions lays the groundwork for the pursuit of postmaterialistic values.