Cultural values and socioeconomic development: Comparing cultural theories

At present, the transcultural theories of Hofstede (1980), Schwartz (1944), Triandis (1995), and Inglehart (1998) represent the most confirmed formulations on the cultural dimensions of values. Despite the interest and popularity of Inglebart's model, there are no papers aimed to analyse the convergent, discriminatory validity of this theory in relation to other cultural theories. This paper attempts to fill the gap by comparing Inglehart's dimension of postmaterialism with Schwartz's cultural dimensions of autonomy, conservation, hierarchy, egalitarianism, harmony and competence. In order to do thid, we follow several process. To begin with, we study the relationship between the scores in the cultural dimensions of both models with a sample of 40 countries. Then we relate the convergent cultural dimensions with external, macrosocial and macroeconomic variables of these societies. Lastly, we analyse the impact of culture, measured by values, and the previous socio-economic standard on the economic and social development of those same societies. The results indicate that the conceptual similarity between the two theories occurs between the cultural dimensions of postmaterialism, intellectual and affective autonomy, and egalitarianism, the values being the result of a serious of macroeconomic and macrosocial conditions, Thus, while economic growth reinforces material values, human development reinforres solidarity values. However, value orientation explains a large part of economic development and subsequent human development.