Inglehart's biggest argument is that economic development, cultural change, and political change go together in coherent and to some extent predictable patterns. This is a controversial claim. Author used data from World Values Surveys in which more than 60 000 participants from 43 societies participated. On this data, Inglehart demontrates that specific cultural, economic and political variables are closely correlated.
Weber argues, that the rise of Protestantism was a crucial event in modernizing Europe. Inglehart analyzes each religion, but in the end, he agrees with this statement mainly because, protestantism made their economic well-being a development something as their religious purpose. Moreover, Inglehart argues that the central element in the rise of modernity was
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He argues against the opinion that Islamic fundamentalism is gaining more power even in modernizing countries, because as he holds, these countries are not truly modernizing, they have just been lucky enough to use their large oil revenues for modern vehicles, technology, weapons, etc. which makes them look like they are very modern and forward countries. Once a society is going through the process of secularization, bureaucratization can start too. Building a system based on rules and impersonal goal-oriented achievement standards is important for a modernizing society.
One of the most interesting parts of the reading is devoted to the Postmodern Shift. Postmodernization is a new occurence visible mostly in first world countries. It is focused on individual concerns, it does not give any authority to the state or religion. Individuals concentrate on the quality of life and maximize their well-being. Apparently, postmodernization brings a rejection to everything known so far: both Capitalist and Marxist values, science, technology, big centralized government, etc. 2 ideas are core to postmodernization: secularization and