Post-materialism is an economic philosophy that emphasizes quality of life and environmental sustainability issues instead of earning income and material possessions. Post-materialists give high priority to values such as more citizen input in government decisions, the ideal of a society based on ideas instead of money, and maintaining a clean and healthy environment, rather than to values associated with the philosophy of materialism such as economic growth, a strong national defense, and "law and order".

The term "post-materialism" was coined by the political scientist Ronald Inglehart in 1970. One of his main hypotheses was that people place their highest interest in things they were relatively deprived of in their youth. Therefore, Inglehart argued that people growing up after the Second World War would generally have a more post-materialist value orientation than people growing up before, because they were not raised in times of material deprivation.

This hypothesis would imply that the whole of society should grow more post-materialist over time. This has not yet turned out to be the case; in countries with a relatively high level of post-materialism such as The Netherlands or Sweden, the proportion of post-materialists in society hasn't even grown higher than 30 percent, and during some years declined. Still, the concept of post-materialism can be usefully related to libertarianism, (anti-)authoritarianism, egalitarianism, and party preference.

See also

• Consumerism (opposing ideology)
• Affluenza
• Gross National Happiness
• John Kenneth Galbraith
• World Values Survey

External links

• Fifty Possible Ways to Challenge Over-Commercialism by Albert J. Fritsch, SJ, PhD

Economic theories | Economic ideologies | SustainabilityAnti-corporate activism

Postmaterialismus