Los valores culturales y el desarrollo socioeconómico

Una comparación entre teorías culturales

Abstract

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 Inglehart’s model, there are no papers that attempt
to analyse the convergent, discriminatory validity of this theory in relation to other cultural theories.
This paper attempts to fill the gap by comparing the dimension of Inglehart’s postmaterialism
with Schwartz’s cultural dimensions of autonomy, conversation, hierarchy, egalitarianism,
harmony and competence. In order to do this, we follow several processes. 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 list 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; that the values are the result of a series of macroeconomic and macrosocial
conditions. And so, while economic growth reinforces material values, human development
reinforces values that are more shared. However, the orientation of values explains a large part of
economic development and subsequent human development.