'Freedom Rising is a singularly impressive study of how social modernization can transform societies and their citizens. Welzel marshals data from the World Values Survey to support his human empowerment model with an impressive store of empirical evidence. This is likely to be the decade's most important book on political development and political culture.' Russell J. Dalton, University of California, Irvine

'Freedom Rising is an exceptionally ambitious book. It takes a tour of human history that ends with some insights into the possible future of advanced post-industrial societies, based on penetrating analyses of a massive body of empirical evidence. The author argues convincingly that, although the rise of the state initially brought diminishing human freedom, since the Enlightenment this trend began to revert itself, bringing increasing emphasis on human rights and making democracy more probable in countries around the world. This book will be controversial for it makes a major contribution to our understanding of how history moves.' Ronald F. Inglehart, University of Michigan and Higher School of Economics, Moscow and St Petersburg

'Freedom Rising offers a comprehensive evolutionary theory of emancipation that covers the entire process of civilization. This theory is tested using data of a global scale. The approach is as bold as it is inspiring. It describes the long road toward sustainable human empowerment, and it demonstrates that the desire to achieve free choice and equal opportunity drives the process toward democratic rule. Freedom Rising and its theory will not go uncontested. However, this magnum opus has all it needs to become a classic text of our discipline.' Hans-Dieter Klingemann, Social Science Research Center Berlin and Baheceshir University Istanbul