Another relationship concerns the transformative goals of elites and
the general ideological orientations of a society. Incongruence may not
be fatal to transformative projects, but active social opposition or passive resistance can lead to delays and loss of momentum. For example, if German
elites’ goal is to liberalize sexual norms in society, they are likely
to enjoy a higher degree of ideological congruence than American elites
embarking on the same project because the historical legacy of Puritanism
in the United States would probably generate a higher degree of social
resistance. Unlike the previous case, congruence in this case is more difficult
to evaluate because the general ideological orientations of any society
are difficult to measure.