Showing papers on "Westernization published in 1978"

Reflections on the Chinese Model of Development

Abstract: In pursuing socialist economic development, China's leaders have attempted to follow a path different from that followed in the Soviet Union. The Chinese "model" has stressed value change above rapid industrialization, decentralization above centralization, and balanced growth above urban dominance. The question of the degree to which this model has become institutionalized in Chinese society, however, and the extent to which it will survive during the next decade, is problematic. In retrospect the Chinese model has apparently been rather limited in its actual application, while current developments appear to signal a movement in the direction of the Soviet model. Of the major socialist societies discussed in this volume, China is the exception, the one that differs most from the "Soviet Marxist developmental norm." The Chinese, under the leadership of Chairman Mao, struggled for some time with this norm before staking a new course that ostensibly liberated China from her Soviet shackles.1 This "Chinese model of development" existed briefly during the Great Leap Forward, faltered in the early nineteen sixties, then flourished during the Great Proletarian Cultural Revolution. The latter was the epitome of China's uniqueness. It was an event that eluded "rational" analysis by the most competent of scholars, solidified China's claim to be an aberration within the socialist world, and reinforced the Western world's view of China as "mysterious," "unfathomable," "Asian," and "unpredictable." From the events of 196671 there evolved a Chinese concept of development that captured our imagination with its simplicity and promise. The Chinese were going to develop without the chaos and disruption that had previously accompanied modernization throughout the rest of the world, capitalist or socialist. The Soviet Union had succumbed to the evils of industrialization and Westernization, but need it be so for the Chinese? Was it not possible that a third choice existed-neither Manchester nor Moscow? Was it not conceivable that mankind might modernize without passing through the fire and brimstone of massive urbanization, without a highly centralized command economy, and without ruthlessly subjecting the countryside to the rule of the cities? Could not modernization be more humane than it had in the past, be less focused on the high altar of rapid economic growth

[Population growth and urbanization in Latin America: some comments on demographic development and urban structural change].

Abstract: The population of Latin America will be increasing by 130% between 1970 and the year 2000. Due to excessive rural exodus the urban population grows almost twice as fast as the rural does. The urbanization of the subcontinent must be regarded as being the dominant spatial process in Latin America. It results in fundamental changes of the structure and the way of life of the population as well as in the size and character of the settlements. Three case studies (Popay n/Colombia Sucre/Bolivia and Santiago/Chile) show that a process of westernization can be observed within the cities analogous to their size in the course of which the compact structure of the colonial town pattern is succeeded by a sectorially or cellularly arranged cityorganism. From todays point of view a definite judgement or urbanization as a relevant phenomenon of development cannot yet be made. It can be stated however that the southern countries of Latin America which have been urbanized the most show distinct signs of a social and economic "take off". (authors)

Political Culture and Development: Some Pervasive Themes in the Study of Indian Politics

Abstract: One of the most common themes in the literature on political development is the assumption of an elite—mass gap based on differing educational, occupational, income and social class backgrounds. The saliency of such differences are presumed to be more important in developing than developed nations because of an overlay of Westernization to be found in the elite sectors and a strong traditional orientation among the masses, particularly the rural masses. Urban dwellers are often thought of as residing in a transitional limbo between the old and the new, between a disintegrating traditional self-identity and an emerging modern one.

On Nigerian pop culture

Abstract: This cult of westernization, this flight from African traditions together defines contemporary Africa's cultural disease . . . . A n d worse : there is a senseless refusal even to examine the African reality before we damage it further with thoughtless importations from the West. We flee our reality and our traditions and knock at western doors, batter at western walls, seeking a place, however cramped, however barren and deadly, in the backyard of western culture.

Finance and Technology Transfer

Abstract: Publisher Summary This chapter highlights finance and technology transfer in late 19th and early 20th centuries. The lack of historical perspective is a striking feature of all studies on technology transfer to developing countries. Yet a comparison between technology transfer in the late 19th and early 20th centuries and technology transfer will reveal strong similarities. This is particularly true with reference to the financial burden assumed by developing countries that import technology from Western industrialized countries. In the past, technology transfer was referred to as westernization or, more recently, modernization. In the 19th century, most countries in Latin America, Asia, and North Africa were striving to promote their development and to narrow the widening gap with the West by importing arms, machinery, and technical assistance in almost every field, also granting concessions to Western firms to develop local services and exploit natural resources. In North Africa and Ottoman Asia, the first attempts at modernization can be traced back to the early nineteenth century with Muhammad Ali's experience in Egypt, Khaireddine in Tunis, and the Tanzimat movement in the Ottoman Empire.