The Decline of Traditional Values in Western Europe: Religion, Nationalism, Authority
Author(s)
Dogan, Mattei
Abstract
Religion, nationalism and authority were the traditional pillars of the old state-societies of Western Europe. Three generations ago it was still a sacrilege to criticize them. The church sanctified the national community and legitimated the authority (a monarch or an authoritarian leadership). If one of these pillars had been removed, the entire system would have been weakened. During the last four decades these traditional values have declined simultaneously, at different speeds, in all Western European countries, without a single exception.
