| |
| author |
Tess Liddy
| | title |
A Country Changed: The Dramatic Shift of Irish Social Values
| | abstract |
This thesis intends to investigate the reasons why the Republic of Ireland has undergone
drastic social value shifts in the past few decades. A traditionally conservative, Catholic country,
Ireland has paved the way to the legalization of contraception, divorce, same-sex marriage, and
abortion; it has also seen a shift in how many people vote for the main center-right parties. Using
the case study of abortion, the reasons why this shift has been occurring is analyzed. Through an
investigation of economic modernization theory, a generational cohort effect, increased
globalization, the rise of global feminism, and the decrease in the belief in the Catholic Church,
this paper looks at how and why abortion was legalized in the Republic of Ireland, and the
consequences of these answers for the larger topic of the overall shift in social values. Through
an analysis of the relationships between the cultural phenomena, at each given point in the
journey to safe and legal abortions, and data collected from the European Values Study, this
paper concludes that a generational cohort effect does not explain the shift in social values given
the speed that Ireland changed it public opinion. It also concludes that economic modernization
had little to do with the shift. Instead, the shift in social values is credited, in a small way, to the
effects of globalization on Ireland and, in more prominent ways, the rise of global feminism and
the decline of belief in the Catholic Church.
| | school |
The College of Liberal Arts, Drew University
| | degree |
B.A. (2020)
|
| advisor |
Jason Jordan
|
| full text | TLiddy.pdf |
| |
