Family Ties in Western Europe: Persistent Contrasts

IN THE WESTERN WORLD it is not difficult to identify areas where families and family ties are relatively strong and others where they are relatively weak. There are regions where traditionally the family group has had priority over the individual, and others where the individual and individual values have had priority over everything else. The strength and resilience of family loyalties, allegiances, and authority can be seen most clearly within the coresidential domestic group and among persons from the same conju-gal family, although they extend to the larger kin group as well. These differences may well have characterized the European family for centu-ries, and there are few indications that convergence is occurring today. The way in which the relationship between the family group and its mem-bers manifests itself has implications for the way society itself functions. Politicians and public planners would do well to consider the nature of existing family systems when designing certain social policies. The geography of these strong and weak family systems does not ap-pear to follow the classic division of Europe into stem-family and nuclear-family regions. The dividing line, in some ways, is actually much simpler, with the center and north of Europe (Scandinavia, the British Isles, the Low Countries, much of Germany and Austria), together with North Ameri-can society, being characterized by relatively weak family links, and the Mediterranean region by strong family ties. The specific boundaries of dif-ferent family systems are often not crystal clear, and subregional differ-ences abound. Eor example, in some respects Ireland does not fit well into northern European family patterns, northern and southern Erance often appear to walk divergent paths, and the southern fringes of Spain, Italy, or Portugal often show characteristics distinct from the northern parts of those same countries. Within individual societies, there is also much room for heterogeneity affecting families and family life. This multiplicity of forms