The Catholic Church's Soft Power After The Lateran Pact In 1929

This thesis focuses on the Catholic Church's soft power and try to answer the research question as follows:What are the impacts of the Lateran Pact on the Catholic Church's soft power after 1929?In terms of the definition and sources of soft-power,despite ongoing disagreements among scholars of its essence and new elaborations of it still emerging,the current soft power theoretical regime is primarily based on Joseph S.Nye's definition that "it is the ability to get what you want through attraction rather than coercion or payments;it is getting others to want the outcomes you want-co-opting people rather than coercing them".Combined with other scholars' discussions,it can be observed that soft power itself is a relatively complicated concept.It is a certain kind of influence which can be generated from intangible assets including culture,tradition,values,ideals,etc.,as well as tangible assets such as economic prowess,which provides an entity with the power to impact others and achieve its goal through attraction,rather than coercion.Furthermore,it is also important for entities to make efficient efforts to transmit their soft power.The output of the soft power,i.e.,the influence entities get from their inputs could be both at the national and personal level,thus entities can either change the behaviors of another entity,or impact people's feelings and thoughts through soft power.Regarding the Catholic Church's changes after 1929 when the Lateran Pact was signed,the most fundamental change is the establishment of the Vatican City as a modern state,leading to the transition of the Catholic Church's status from a powerful and influential religious institution to a widely recognized sovereign and independent state,entitled with an exclusively owned territory.Such transition created by this new status entitled the Catholic Church with more ideas and policy instruments to strengthen its international influence,thus more sources and attributes for enhancing its soft power.It is also entitled with the right and freedom to manage its diplomatic relations independently with all states and organizations without any interference from Italy.All these changes make it reasonable to expect that the Catholic Church's soft power would be enhanced after 1929.In order to measure the soft power of the Catholic Church after 1929,the author employed a methodology combining both quantitative and qualitative research approaches:a)case study;b)analysis of expert's opinion;c)quantitative content analysis of mass media;d)Catholic population statistics analysis.The case study research results show that after the Lateran Pact granted the Vatican City state status,the Catholic Church became increasingly more active,involved,and manifested itself with greater participation in international affairs with its efforts influential in changing the international agenda.The examination of the three books regarding the Catholic history shows that the authors tend to put emphasis on the impact of the Lateran Pact and acknowledge the Church's increasing influence.The data collected from the newspapers also portrays the narrative that after 1929 the Catholic Church enjoyed more mass media coverage,hence,more attraction from the public side.Lastly,the Catholic following growth in population and increase of its proportion to the total world population after 1929 provides supplemental evidence that determine the growing soft power of the Catholic Church.As a result,it is highly plausible that there is a correlation between the Lateran Pact and the enhancement of the Catholic Church's soft power.