Chapter 7
The Cultural Determinants of Democracy and Dictatorship
Incompatibility of Certain Cultures with Democracy
Inquiry: Are certain cultures incompatible with democracy?
Arguments about culture and democracy typically fall into two categories:
Primordialist Arguments: Treat culture as objective and inherited; regarded as fixed since 'primordial' times.
Constructivist Arguments: Treat culture as socially constructed or invented rather than inherited.
Classical Cultural Arguments
The debate regarding whether political institutions like democracy and dictatorship are culturally specific is not new.
Important historical references:
Aeschylus, The Persians (472 BC): Suggested authoritarianism is suited for Asia, while democracy fits Athens.
Montesquieu: Linked government forms to cultures:
Monarchy in Europe
Despotism in the Orient
Democracy in the ancient world
Institutions cannot be exported from one country to another without issues.
John Stuart Mill: Stated that not all peoples can manage every type of institution. Legislators must consider “pre-existing habits and feelings” when creating laws and institutions.
Mill believed culture was malleable, stating, “people learn to do things new to them” and that familiarity helps in adopting new practices.
Current Questions: What aspects of culture matter, and what is the causal relationship between cultural, economic, and political factors?
Diagram (
Culture -> Democracy -> Economic Development
Economic Development + Culture -> Democracy
)
Does Democracy Require a Civic Culture?
In The Civic Culture (1965), Almond and Verba classified political cultures into three types:
Parochial: Characteristic of traditional systems like some African tribes.
Subject: Relates to centralized authoritarian regimes.
Participant/Civic: Characteristics of democratic systems. Only a civic culture aligns with democracy.
Political culture: Defined by individual perceptions and feelings about the political system.
Civic Culture Definition: A shared bundle of attitudes comprising:
High interpersonal trust
Preference for gradual societal change
Support for the existing political system
High life satisfaction
Almond and Verba concluded that civic culture increases the likelihood of countries becoming and remaining democratic.
Inglehart and Welzel's Dimensions of Cultural Variation
Identification of two dominant dimensions in today's global culture:
Traditional Values vs Secular-Rational Values:
Traditional: Emphasizes religion, familial roles, national pride, and disapproval of practices like divorce and euthanasia.
Secular-Rational: Less reliant on religious tradition, cosmopolitan outlook.
Survival Values vs Self-Expression Values:
Survival: Focus on economic security, ethnocentric attitudes, low trust.
Self-Expression: Values gender equality, environmental concerns, diversity tolerance, and civic engagement.
Claim: Societies with high traditional/survival values are generally dictatorships, whereas those with secular-rational/self-expression values tend to be democratic.
Cultural Modernization Theory
Inglehart and Welzel: Asserted that “socioeconomic development brings roughly predictable cultural changes” enhancing democratization potential.
Without cultural changes, democracy is likely to fail; all nations may democratize if economic development cultivates required cultural transformations.
Outline of phases contributing to democratization:
Industrialization Phase: Moving from traditional to secular-rational values,
Post-Industrialization Phase: Transitioning from survival to self-expression values.
Elements of the Industrialization Phase:
Pre-Industrial: Features labor-intensive agriculture, high religiosity, low life expectancy, high fertility, limited female opportunities, and lower education.
Characteristics during Industrialization: Rise in scientific advancements, decline in religiosity, bureaucratic systems, mass education, reduced child labor, and increased political participation.
Malthusian Trap and Economic Growth
Malthusian Trap: Cycle where technological advances initially raise living standards, but higher population growth eventually brings them back down to subsistence levels.
Oded Galor: Describes a historical stagnation of living standards across civilizations prior to the Industrial Revolution.
The Industrial Revolution constitutes a break from this cycle, resulting in substantial per capita income and life expectancy improvements globally.
The Demographic Transition
Transformation resulting from industrialization, featuring:
Decreased fertility rates,
Increased female employment,
Gender equality improvements,
Shift in political participation demands towards women.
Post-Industrialization Phase Details
The latter part of the 20th century marked the decline of industrial sectors and the rise of service industries.
Economic prosperity post-World War II allowed for less focus on material concerns, thus encouraging self-expression and personal freedoms.
Inglehart's Silent Revolution: Emergence of left-libertarian parties demanding greater political liberalization, a challenge to authoritarian governance.
Populism and Gender Dynamics in Politics
Rise of educational gaps where women surpass men significantly in education levels.
Reflections on how these shifts have led to male mortality crises and the rise of radical right populism, fueled by a perception of economic disenfranchisement among less educated men.
Political competition increasingly exhibits divisions along educational and gender lines, leading to cultural clashes that impact democratic institution support.
Visualizing Economic and Cultural Changes (Data Insights)
Graphical data representations covering variations in GDP per capita, extreme poverty levels, child mortality, life expectancy, literacy rates, and years of schooling across time.
Highlights that economic growth has led to significant social transformations and shifts in health metrics.
Religious Influence on Democracy
Examining Samuel Huntington's Clash of Civilizations thesis that asserts cultural conflicts, rather than economic or ideological ones, will dominate future conflicts.
Key arguments suggesting that:
Certain cultures (Islamic, Confucian, Catholic) might be inherently incompatible with democratic practices, given their hierarchical and authoritarian tendencies.
Criticisms of these arguments highlight diversity within cultures and the problematic idea of fixed cultural traits.
Religion’s Historical Links to Democracy
Protestantism: Linked to democracy through its contributions to capitalism and individual responsibility as per Max Weber and Lipset.
Catholicism: Critiqued for its hierarchical structure not aligning with the egalitarian principles crucial for democratic systems.
Confucianism: Argued to conflict with democratic norms due to its value on authority and communal interests.
Dynamic interpretations of religions are necessary, as many contain elements that can either support or challenge democratic principles.
Theorizing Culture in Political Contexts
Traditional approaches emphasize a stable, shared cluster of attitudes representing a culture; however, change is slow.
Alternative views by Acemoglu and Robinson positing that culture consists of a repertoire of attributes enabling various configurations adaptive to societal needs.
Emphasis on how cultural configurations shape societal outcomes, acknowledging rapid shifts in response to political contexts.
Exploration of political-cultural social equilibria includes:
Unconstrained States
Absent States
Constrained States
Proposes that changes in cultural configurations can change political systems, but the legitimacy of new arrangements relies on the success of cultural entrepreneurs in re-configuring these configurations.
Conclusion
Cultures that are perceived as primordial may mask the actual fluidity of cultural configurations.
The interplay between culture and politics is complex, requirements for democracy might not solely rest on economic factors but also on adaptive cultural conditions to ensure stable governance.