and economic change of the societies, which may seem trivial to most of us. Legal cultures are never constant over time, as cultures in general never are. They are instead provocatively flexible. The example now discussed in this paper is so far very illuminating. Although for the moment one of those societies scoring top in secular-rational authority and self-expressive values, Sweden did nevertheless still in the mid-eighteenth century promote values as traditional and survival oriented as any Asian and Islamic country promotes today. The advent of industrialised society triggered social and economic changes that have been more powerful and widespread than any other previous changes in history. The industrial system of production employed individuals, not families, which undermined the family as the basic productive unit. The creation of comprehensive social security institutions only accelerated the emancipation of the individual from social and economic dependence on his or her family. The social security policy of the welfare state ousted the social and economic rationality of legitimacy. A product of mediaeval feudal law, legitimacy had no qualities of its own to find a rational use in the industrial, affluent society of the Swedish type. Law’s kulturelle Bedingungenof the second half of the twentieth century were astoundingly different from that which established legitimacy as a core part of family law. The legal history of legitimacy not only describes a profound change in our legal culture but also clarifies that this culture is really only but a fruit of our own time. The journey of our WVS map star has much to tell people of our own generation about the flexibility and changeability of our value systems, of which our legal culture is one of the most significant expressions. 139
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