RELIGION AND THE SPIRIT OF CAPITALISM - A COMPARISON OF ATTITUDES TO WORK AND THE ECONOMIC ORDER IN THE USA AND SPAIN

This essey takes up Max Weber's thesis that the spirit of capitalism h as its roots in protestantism. The author's objecitve is to examine th is thesis by conducting a secondary analysis of an international study on values which surveyed a number of values held by citizens of diffe rent nations. Following a summary of Weber's thesis on protestantism, the author proposes hypotheses on what differences in attitude concern ing work and the economic order might be expected between catholics an d protestants and between people in the USA and Spain. He goes on to e laborate on the methods employed and concludes with a verification of his hypotheses based on the results of his evaluation of the internati onal study on values.