Failed promises of modernization: Temporal trends in religiosity, postmaterialism and Ethno-nationalist attitudes in the Netherlands

Todosijević, Bojan (2014) Failed promises of modernization: Temporal trends in religiosity, postmaterialism and Ethno-nationalist attitudes in the Netherlands. Sociological Discourse, 4 (8). pp. 29-43. ISSN 2637-2878 eISSN 2232-867X

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Abstract

The process of modernization is understood to imply changing tends in prevalence of certain value orientations. Theoretical accounts dealing with the processes of global value changes include notions such as secularization, modernization, and postmaterialist value shift, among others. The paper analyzes trends in prevalence of thee basic value or ideological orientations: religiosity, postmaterialism and nationalist attitudes. The classical theories of value transformation imply decrease in religiosity and nationalist orientations, and increase in post-materialism. The problem is examined using data the Dutch Parliamentary Election Studies (DPES). The Netherlands is an especially appropriate case to address these problems. The trend of the initial sharp secularization and then persisting religious cleavage is particularly clearly outlined here. The Dutch have also been found to be among the most postmaterialist nations. Finally, the new trend of anti-immigrant politics has also been early and very vividly expressed in the Netherlands, indicating the importance of nationalist attitudes. The main findings indicate that modernization and ‘post-modernization’ theories are imperfect explanations for the observed trends in values. Decrease in religiosity is observed only for some indicators, while trends in nationalist and post-materialist orientations do not follow the expected course.

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