Modern moral progress may be a Western artifact that reverses as Western power fades

Evidence

Modernization has generally enhanced the material level of Civilization throughout the world. But has it also enhanced the moral and cultural dimensions of Civilization? In some respects this appears to be the case. Slavery, torture, vicious abuse of individuals, have become less and less acceptable in the contemporary world. Is this, however, simply the result of the impact of Western civilization on other cultures and hence will a moral reversion occur as Western power declines? — Samuel P. Huntington, The Clash of Civilizations and the…, 900

Categorization

• QUESTION: Worth chasing: is the decline of slavery/torture genuinely global moral progress or contingent on Western hegemony? Data on torture prevalence post-Western decline would test it.
• XREF: connects to: Political closure in the West masked persisting revolutionary energies globally — Perry Anderson, The Origins of Postmodernity, 232; Postwar global economic integration was framed as requiring Western moral transformation