Democratic Aspirations and Family Relations in Europe: Towards the Questioning of a Generational Order?

Celine Jeannot Pietroy, University of Lyon, UJM-Saint-Etienne

This paper uses the concept of "generational order" to examine the links between the structure of the family institution and democratic aspirations in Europe today. Already in 1835, in his work on the young American democracy, the political philosopher Tocqueville highlighted the influence of the establishment of democratic regimes on intra-family relations. The democratic development of societies has led to an evolution of the social bond which, once hierarchical, becomes more egalitarian (Tocqueville, 1848). In the context of Western societies, the concept of generational order leads us to rethink the evolution of social relations between adults and children within the family. This concept, which stems from the work of the sociologist of childhood L. Alanen, describes a social functioning based on a "generational order" conceived as "a system of socially constructed relations that governs the interactions between the social positions of adults and children" (1994, 2009). We therefore propose to answer the following question: what are the links between adults' aspirations for a democratic political system and their attitudes towards childhood, and in particular towards the values linked to the emancipation of children? This research is based on the 5th wave of the international survey "European Values Study" launched in 2017 in 38 European countries and whose first results have been published in 2020. It proposes a quantitative cross-analysis of the answers provided by adults (over 18 years old) to questions relating to their relationship with authority, their desire to live in a more democratic state and their vision of generational roles. The results offer a panorama of the way in which childhood is viewed in different European countries and contribute to the development of a critical approach to the hierarchical relationships between adults and children (Wall, 2010; Bonnardel, 2015).

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 Presented in Session 64. Talking about My Generation: Youth Crisis and Conflict