Though the old motivation for political behaviour had lapsed, the parties
and other major institutions like trade unions had not adapted. Thus, new
concerns were ill catered for in the post-materialist world by institutions that
were still largely materialist. These new concerns were identified largely by a
social psychological theory that claimed that people have hierarchies of needs.
Once the most basic need for physical security is satisfied, higher order needs
for personal development and moral growth take precedence. In political terms
these were identified above all with a desire for a more democratic, egalitarian
and non-authoritarian society. Moral concerns for the environment, for First
World duties to the Third World and for maximum personal freedom came to
the fore. This led to voting for ecological parties; old parties losing their loyal
voting blocks as they were assessed more rationally and individually; and to the
rise of non-party organizations like anti-war movements, gay-rights groups,
and environmental pressure groups.
Not surprisingly, such post-materialist tendencies were found to be stronger
among the young. But they were also much more common in the middle class,
and above all, amongst the well educated. Thus critics suggest that what was
really happening was simply the disproportionate growth of a ‘new middle
class’, and that the old concerns remained strong among the bulk of the
population.
Post-Modernism
Post-modernism, often called by its detractors ‘PoMo’, is one of the widest-
ranging intellectual fashions seen in the last 150 years. Like many of its
predecessors this self-consciously radical generalized social commentary and
theory originated in France and has recruited extensively amongst the Amer-
ican intelligentsia. Its range of influence is remarkable, because post-modern-
ism is seen not only in academic and cultural activities from sociological theory
to art criticism, but also in architectural style. It is so often and viciously
derided by those who have not fallen to its fashionable influence, that those
who are simply neutral tend to an instinctive sympathy, even if they neither
pretend to understand or apply post-modern theory.
Post-modernism’s core conception can be guessed from its name. By
describing the mode of thought as ‘post’ and ‘modern’, its advocates are
claiming to reject the consensus in Western though that sees theEnlight-
enment, with its break with medieval thought and its celebration of rationality,
as heralding an unstoppable progress in human life, understanding and experi-
ence. It is not conservative in claiming that things were somehow better before
the Enlightenment, simply asserting that enlightenment rationality is as time-
bound and relativist in its truths as any preceding period. The universalistic
Post-Modernism