The public debate on French values is more than ever riddled with alarmist interpretations. The rise of individualism, the decline of the republican and secular matrix, the weight of immigration β¦ all these factors, combined with sluggish growth and rising inequality, are allegedly leading to a polarized society, and breaking down national cohesion. The EVS has been tracking significant long term change since throughout the European continent, and questions representative of national samples of people on values varying from morality, sociability, or politics to religion and the economy.
Social liberal behavior is better accepted today than forty years ago. The acceptance of suicide and of casual sex has grown significantly. But it is views on homosexuality, euthanasia, abortion and divorce that have really moved on. Yet, although the French tend to have increasingly liberal moral attitudes, certain behavior, such as prostitution, is still not very tolerated. Acceptance also depends on the period.
Social liberalism increased sharply between and , then capped in the early s, and has taken off again since During the s, there was still some resistance from the public to, for example, the PACS civil union, which took a long time to become legal.
Yet, the many debates on same-sex marriage, the right to euthanasia or artificial insemination have accelerated the acceptance of liberal mores over the last ten years. But context does not explain everything.
The liberalization of mores since the s has largely been the result of the changing generations, with young people being much more open than their elders. It is interesting to note that the young people of the s are now older but are just as tolerant as the young people of the beginning of the twenty-first century.
