Need Achievement, Coerciveness of Government, and Political Unrest

McClelland has assessed the level of need for achievement (n Ach) within societies and found it to be related to rate of economic development. In this study, McClelland's n Ach scores for 23 nations in 1925 and 39 nations in 1950 are correlated with the authors' measures of political instability, coerciveness of regime, systemic frustration, and level of development. Results show that 1925 n Ach scores are negatively related, and 1950 n Ach scores are positively related to these societal measures, although the relationships are not statistically significant. Stronger relationships are found using the trend in level of n Ach over time between 1925 and 1950. Increases in n Ach level are positively and significantly related to both political unrest and coerciveness of regime. It is suggested that an increase in n Ach heralds a rapid rate of socioeconomic change which, in the short run, increases the level of political unrest within societies.