European values study in Malta

Abstract

Over the past thirty years sociological research on Maltese society has employed variants of the secularisation model in order to explain change in contemporary Maltese society. It has generally been assumed that socio-economic development in Malta was conducive to a decline in the social significance of religion and the erosion of traditional values. Social scientists presumed that Malta would follow the trends of secularisation which were evident earlier in Europe. The passage of time, however, and further analysis by the same social researchers, has shown that the secularisation model does not fit the Maltese case completely.