Other accounts are more sophisticated. The most thorough and ambitious version of the cultural backlash argument has been advanced by my Harvard Kennedy School colleague Pippa Norris and Ronald Inglehart of the University of Michigan.¶¶In a recent book, they argue that authoritarian populism is the consequence of a long-term generational shift in values.¶¶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.