As younger generations have become richer, more educated, and more secure, they have adopted “post-materialist” values that emphasize secularism, personal autonomy, and diversity at the expense of religiosity, traditional family structures, and conformity. Older generations have become alienated – effectively becoming “strangers in their own land.” While the traditionalists are now numerically the smaller group, they vote in greater numbers and are more politically active.
Will Wilkinson of the Niskanen Center recently made a
similar argument, focusing on the role of urbanization in particular. Wilkinson argues that urbanization is a process of spatial sorting that divides society in terms not only of economic fortunes, but also of cultural values. It creates thriving, multicultural, high-density areas where socially liberal values predominate. And it leaves behind rural areas and smaller urban centers that are increasingly uniform in terms of social conservatism and aversion to diversity.
