L'évolution des valeurs des Français

At the end of the 1970s, a group of social scientists started a research project on the value systems held by Europeans; using representative samples of the population of each country and basically identical questionnaires, they were then able to carry out three detailed studies, roughly ten years apart. A special issue of the journal Futuribles (number 200, July-August 1995) was devoted to the trends that emerged from the surveys held in Europe in 1981 and 1990. While awaiting the publication of another special issue covering the whole of Europe on the basis of the results of the last survey, carried out in 1999, the main trends for France are briefly presented here for the first time.
First, Pierre Bréchon and Jean-François Tchernia review the trends observed over 20 years (1981, 1990 and 1999) by age cohort (generation). They distinguish three areas:
– one where values seem to have remained quite stable, such as the desire of the French to free themselves from the major intangible principles and, despite their continuing attachment to the family, their lack of interest in marriage;
– one where there has been rapid change, such as the growing tolerance of homosexuality, intransigeance vis-à-vis Right-wing extremism and increasing secularization;
– finally, one where values are changing more slowly. Three basic trends stand out here: first, the fact that the French are increasingly critical of their society yet at the same time more and more of them say they are personally happy. Next, the fact that “traditional” participation in political life (voting in elections) is falling, but new forms of direct participation are on the increase. Finally, as a corollary of the decline of regard for the major principles, the French are strongly attached to freedom of individual choice but also consider that it is important to maintain social order.
In the second part of their article, the authors try to explain the processes behind these results: why some values remain stable while others change, and to explore what can be learned about the future from the trends observed. Instead of relying on the standard distinctions based on age, generation and period, they identify natural cycles (including the biological cycle, the life cycle and the cycle of generations), structural trends (strongly influenced by social change) and historical events (classed in two categories depending on how long their impact lasts).
They are then able to suggest several keys to a better understanding of the factors most responsible for changes (or absence of change) in values and to establish an extremely useful basis for studying values in the future.