Constructing Political Culture Theory: The Political Science of Ronald Inglehart

In the last two decades Ronald Inglehart has developed, tested, and attempted to falsify a series of hypotheses explaining some of the most important political changes occurring around the globe and has also sought to resolve some of the most intractable challenges to the development of a paradigmatic comparative politics. This article examines the writings of Ronald Inglehart and demonstrates how his writings have enriched many important theoretical and empirical debates in comparative politics. At the same time it critically examines these writings to reveal some of the larger difficulties in creating a predictive political culture theory.