I imagine this has probably been discussed before, but what under what kind of conditions could north America and the historically Protestant regions of Europe remain socially and morally conservative into the 21st century-- i.e. with high religiosity, divorce and separation rare and stigmatised, women strongly expected to be primary caregivers, etc.? Based on my own cursory study of the issue it seems like the decisive factor is the capture of states on the one hand, and churches on the other (this latter having happened in Europe far more so than the US, hence the near extinction of social conservatism as a political force in most of northern Europe) by progressive minded elites. Economic and technological change doubtless also played a part in some ways, but as far as I am aware at least some Catholic countries, the most prominent example for me being Ireland, also experienced very similar changes in these respects but largely without the breakdown of 'traditional values', thus far.
In which case, how could this have happened otherwise? Or, I suppose, what is the latest plausible POD that could have changed it? Maybe in the US you could do it with fairly straightforward PODs involving greater electoral success for conservatives at the right times (I could be wrong on this though, my knowledge of US history is shaky at best).
But the curious thing about the triumph of permissive/progressive values in Europe and most conspicuously perhaps in Britain seems to be the lack of coherent and organised opposition to the political process, ie conservative/right wing political parties seemed to be profoundly uninterested in opposing the legal reforms that I think were, directly, largely responsible: so would the POD have to involve some sort of religious revival among the middle/upper middle classes in the early to mid c20th, maybe involving disestablishment of the state churches? I'm pretty shaky on where modern progressive values in European national elites really came from though, hence my asking this question.
Looking forward to some interesting responses.
In which case, how could this have happened otherwise? Or, I suppose, what is the latest plausible POD that could have changed it? Maybe in the US you could do it with fairly straightforward PODs involving greater electoral success for conservatives at the right times (I could be wrong on this though, my knowledge of US history is shaky at best).
But the curious thing about the triumph of permissive/progressive values in Europe and most conspicuously perhaps in Britain seems to be the lack of coherent and organised opposition to the political process, ie conservative/right wing political parties seemed to be profoundly uninterested in opposing the legal reforms that I think were, directly, largely responsible: so would the POD have to involve some sort of religious revival among the middle/upper middle classes in the early to mid c20th, maybe involving disestablishment of the state churches? I'm pretty shaky on where modern progressive values in European national elites really came from though, hence my asking this question.
Looking forward to some interesting responses.