Ronald Inglehart

Ronald F. Inglehart, born on September 5, 1934, was a distinguished American political scientist and sociologist renowned for his expertise in comparative politics. He served as the director of the World Values Survey, a pivotal global initiative that conducted representative national surveys across over one hundred societies, encompassing ninety percent of the world's population. The first wave of these surveys commenced in 1981, with the latest completed in 2019.

Inglehart's academic contributions were significant, particularly in the development of a model of cultural dimensions characterized by two axes: secular-rational values versus traditional values and self-expression values versus survival values. This framework was often illustrated through the Inglehart–Welzel cultural map of the world, which has gained recognition as a hallmark of his research.

In the 1970s, he pioneered the influential theory of Generational Replacement, which elucidated the shift in values from materialist to post-materialist perspectives across generations. This theory played a crucial role in shaping various cross-national survey projects, including the Eurobarometer Surveys and the World Values Surveys. Building upon this foundation, Inglehart later introduced the Evolutionary Modernization Theory, positing that economic development and welfare state institutions have transformed human motivations, impacting gender roles, sexual norms, religious practices, economic behavior, and the promotion of democracy.

Throughout his career, Inglehart was highly regarded in the academic community, amassing an impressive total of ninety-four thousand one hundred twenty-five citations by 2019. He also co-directed the Laboratory for Comparative Social Research at the National Research University Higher School of Economics in Moscow and St Petersburg from 2010 until his passing on May 8, 2021.