The aim of this study is to examine the religious landscape of Brazil, and based on the theory of secularization by Pippa Norris and Ronald Inglehart to explain why Brazilians are religious and not secular. The study is a secondary analysis that uses existing statistics to examine different units of analysis of Brazil’s religious landscape, economics and equality, etc. Based on their theory I find that Brazil is still religious due to the lack of security in the country. Brazil is insecure in terms of measures of socioeconomic equality, stable politics without corruption, and physical safety of the citizens in Brazil. The theory of Norris and Inglehart is applicable to Brazil and the study shows that their theory is plausible.

Det ökade stödet för populistiska rörelser i västvärlden har blivit alltmer påtagligt. Två exempel är Storbritanniens utträde ur EU och Donald Trumps vinst i det amerikanska presidentvalet. I Sverige kan Sverigedemokraterna ses som en framgångsrik populistisk rörelse, då partiet erhållit ett allt starkare väljarstöd sedan grundandet år 1988. I den vetenskapliga litteraturen råder ingen konsensus om orsakerna till Sverigedemokraternas framgångar. Tydliga orsaker kan heller inte hämtas från den internationella forskningsfronten, då inte heller denna kan påvisa en klar linje om vad som förklarar populismens frammarsch i västvärlden. Den erkända statsvetaren Ronald Inglehart har bidragit med en förklaringsmodell och menar att populismens framgångar beror på en cultural backlash gentemot den framväxande dominansen av progressiva värderingar i västvärlden. Utifrån Ingleharts forskning och teori om värderingsförändringar, är syftet med denna uppsats att undersöka om hypotesen om en cultural backlash utgör en relevant förklaringsmodell för individers motiv till att sympatisera med Sverigedemokraterna. Studien utförs genom enkätdata från World Values Survey och SOM-institutet. Resultaten visar att sverigedemokratiska sympatisörer inte står för en cultural backlash i termer av att de sluter upp kring värden som står i motsats till progressiva postmateriella värderingar. Sympatisörerna präglas snarare av en oro över fysisk och ekonomisk otrygghet. Resultaten problematiserar antaganden om att det är sammanhållna reaktioner mot värderingar som driver populismens framgångar.

According to Ronald Ingleharts research deindustrialized and affluent societies are expected to have increasingly open, progressive, and tolerant citizens. However, during the last decade political developments have been reversed. More than 25% of Europeans now adays vote for a right-wing populist party. In addition, the globalization has created winning and losing regions, with one of its biggest impacts being deindustrialization of the West. Big cities have flourished while disfavored suburbs, smaller industrial towns and rural communities have been marginalized. Consequently, the support for right-wing populist movements is often highest in such negatively affected areas. Inglehart have previously explained this through the idea of a “conservative backlash” caused by a combination of increasing inequality and culturally revolting age-cohorts. His arguments are mainly based on cross-national or intranational data while other research pointing at the necessity to analyze the association between regional deindustrialization and the rise of the far right. This thesis filles that gap by conducting a multi- level analysis, in which Ingleharts theory is tested by studying associations between values and changing levels of industrialization in 327 European regions. The result confirms earlier research regarding the association between industrialization and authoritarian-libertarian values, but puts in to question Ingleharts explanation of inequality as the reason for the contemporary conservative backlashes. The result shows no support for a relationship between inequality and authoritarian-liberal values.

This thesis explores the possible impact of a postmaterialist value shift on the future of democracy in advanced industrial democratic countries. Research over the past few decades has questioned the responsiveness of representative democratic institutions in advanced industrial democracies to individual and communal needs in society. Radical democratic theorists have called for direct action, structural reform, and other social and political changes to make democracy "stronger." Increased education levels brought on by continued economic and physical security in advanced industrial societies has led to a change in the ability of citizens to access the political process. How the relationship between the citizen and the state is altered as a result of continued prosperity is a primary motivation for this research. Working with World Values Survey data, I examine individual and societal level relationships between postmaterial values and direct political participation and acceptance of participatory values. Empirical evidence supports the hypotheses that postmaterial values are positively associated with direct political participation and as the level of Postmaterialists increases in a given society the level of participatory behavior and acceptance of participatory values will also increase. Substantive analysis suggests that increase in the level of postmaterialism in a country will lead to increases in alternative political activity and other forms of direct participation. / Master of Arts

Det råder delade meningar när det gäller värderingsskillnader mellan generationer i arbetslivet. Diskussionen kring värderingsskillnader mellan generationer får därför ett uppsving när flera generationer samsas på arbetsplatser. Värderingsskillnaderna baseras dock ofta på stereotyper framför vetenskapligt bevisade skiljaktigheter. Studiens syfte är att identifiera olika arbetsvärderingar som existerar hos den svenska populationen samt undersöka hur dessa förhåller sig till olika generationer. Genom en faktoranalys identifieras fyra arbetsvärderingar hos den svenska populationen. Skillnaderna mellan de olika generationerna undersöks med hjälp av en Anova. Ronald Ingleharts teori Den tysta revolutionen menar att värderingar som prioriterar mer materiella ting som pengar bör successivt minska hos yngre generationer medan mer psykologiska värderingar som självförverkligande bör öka. Denna studie visar att Den tysta revolutionens predicering inte helt stämmer in på den svenska populationen. Studiens resultat visar att arbetsvärderingar är stabila över tid och att olika generationer värderar arbete på olika sätt.