This book presents a revised version of modernization theory that integrates socioeconomic development, cultural change, and democratization under the overarching theme of human development. Although the classic view of modernization developed by Marx, Weber, and others was wrong on many points, the central insight – that socioeconomic development brings major social, cultural, and political changes – is basically correct. This insight is confirmed by a massive body of new evidence analyzed in this book, including survey data from eighty-one societies containing 85 percent of the world's population, collected from 1981 to 2001, that demonstrates that the basic values and beliefs of the publics of advanced societies differ dramatically from those found in less-developed societies – and that these values are changing in a predictable direction as socioeconomic development takes place. Changing values, in turn, have important consequences for the way societies are governed, promoting gender equality, democratic freedom, and good governance.

Early versions of modernization theory were too simple. Socioeconomic development has a powerful impact on what people want and do, as Karl Marx argued, but a society's cultural heritage continues to shape its prevailing beliefs and motivations, as Max Weber argued. Moreover, sociocultural change is not linear. Industrialization brings rationalization, secularization, and bureaucratization, but the rise of the knowledge society brings another set of changes that move in a new direction, placing increasing emphasis on individual autonomy, self-expression, and free choice.