Politics and parties: Neglected aspects of postmaterial value change

Inglehart’s thesis of postmaterial value change is one of the most influential accounts of social and political change in advanced Western nations. This paper uses data from the World Values Survey and the Australian Election Surveys to reexamine the relationship between age and values in 19 advanced industrial nations. We find evidence of a monotonic age structuring of values in a number of countries, but in others, the relationship between age and values is not as Inglehart would predict. In addition, the impact of birth cohort on values differs between countries that are dominated by two major parties and those where there are many smaller parties. The presence of successful Green parties is also important for enhancing the uptake of postmaterialist values. These findings suggest that Inglehart’s arguments about generational value change should be modified to take into account national political institutions and political cultures that might enhance or impede generational-based values change.

Comparing the conditions for small business and entrepreneurship in Sweden and Australia: Lessons for the European Charter for Small Enterprises

A growing body of literature is concerned with explaining cross-national performance of small business and entrepreneurs in advanced economies. This literature has considered a range of policy and institutional variables which create an environment supportive of small firms and entrepreneurial activities including macroeconomic variables such as taxation, labour market regulation, social security and income policy; regulatory factors such as establishment legislation, bankruptcy policy, administrative burdens, compliance costs, deregulation and competition policy; and cultural factors such as social and cultural norms that support entrepreneurship. However, this literature has not always distinguished between the policy environment of small firms operating in different industry sectors. The purpose of this paper is to examine the institutional and policy environment of small firms in knowledge intensive sectors. The characteristics of the business environment of particular relevance to knowledge intensive firms are somewhat different from the conditions for entrepreneurship and small business success more generally. This paper compares the science, technology and industry infrastructure of Australia, Denmark, Sweden with other OECD countries. The purpose of the paper is to identify cross-national differences in the business environment of small knowledge intensive firms. The paper seeks to explore whether particular institutional environments appear to be more supportive of small firms in knowledge intensive sectors.