TWICE THE SIZE - DIT Update - Dublin Institute of Technology

characteristic of human development because such progression makes people mentally free,
motivating them to unfold and actualise their inner human potentials. Such change creates
democratic reform potential as people increasingly place more focus on democracy whilst
becoming more critical of actual democratic performance (Welzel, 2006). This progression can
also be described in terms of modernisation and postmodernisation. In the process of
modernisation, societies progress from religious and communal values represented by traditional
authority and steady-state economy to achievement and motivation values characterised by
rational-legal authority and economic growth, and subsequently in the postmodernisation shift
they move towards postmaterialist values represented by a weakening of authority and the
maximisation of well-being (Fig. 9) (Inglehart, 1997).
Figure 9: Modernisation and postmodernisation (Inglehart, 1997).
Ireland is also on that trajectory
Irish society is undergoing a rapid period of cultural modernisation which will entail a shift away
from values that emphasise traditional centralised control and concern for economic betterment
towards values based on rationality and a concern for personal self-development and selfexpression.
During the coming decades Ireland’s value systems will become increasingly driven
by the need of its citizens for self-expression and rationality. Both of these have significant
political implications because they give rise to pressures for increased autonomy. When
combined with an increased and dominant urbanised population in the East – this will accelerate
tensions with a less populous West that will seek greater control over its different destiny.
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