For more than half a century following Almond and Verba's classic The Civic Culture (1963), scholars have debated the complex relationship between cultural values and democratic regimes. Two strands of literature have dominated contemporary discussion. One builds upon modernization theories of cultural change. The intellectual roots of these ideas originated in nineteenth- and early twentieth-century political sociology, becoming the mainstream account of political development during the 1950s. These notions have been revived for the contemporary era and developed most extensively in the seminal work of Ronald Inglehart. Processes of societal modernization and human development, Inglehart theorizes, encourage the growth of ‘post-materialist’ and ‘self-expression values in post-industrial societies, including rising levels of tolerance and trust, direct forms of political activism, and demands for personal and political freedoms. In turn, Inglehart argues, the diffusion of self-expression values among the mass public shapes the cultural conditions under which democratic institutions are most likely to spread and flourish. “The emergence of post-industrial society is conducive to rising emphasis on self-expression, which in turn brings rising mass demands for democracy.” If societal modernization and value change is at the heart of the democratization process, as theories claim, this suggests a series of testable propositions. Democratic values should be endorsed most strongly by populations living within affluent post-industrial societies, as well as by the younger generation, by the highly educated and more affluent, and by those expressing ‘post-materialist’ and ‘self-expression’ values.