Kultura z rozwój ekonomiczny, Ćwiczenia z Kultura Azji i Afryki

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1. Harrison and Mead in their respective articles 'Culture Matters' (2000) and 'The Primacy Contest: Why Culture Matters' (2015) discuss the development and underdevelopment via a cultural lens arguing for their causal relationship. Harrison (2000) underlines largely ignored cultural differences between countries 'prone' and 'resistant’ to societal development described as “values and attitudes that stand in the way of progress” (p.55). Mead (2015) on the other hand not only echoes this rhetoric to establish why non- western countries are underdeveloped but also to assess cultural differences as the fundamental reason why the west in the particular United States will still lead primacy for world leadership. According to the authors, the implications for this relationship can be best seen in the structures that countries organize. Capitalistic Western culture through the support of individualism promotes competition and inevitably advancement in all spheres of life from education, careers, elections, and markets. Moreover, the moralistic nature of westerners, hereditary from the Enlightenment and Protestant ethics pushes the public to hold accountable the ruling class by these principles to resist and punish potential political decline (Mead, 2015 p 529). Contrastingly, mostly socialistic non-western cultures are stagnant where “most people adjust to the world more than seeking change” (Mead, 2015 p 529) and are incompatible with progress due to collectiveness of interests that appease authorities and familial connections which promotes dependency and submission to the state rather than entrepreneurship. Therefore governmental protectionism deters the public from the reformation for a price of corruption and civil rights. The above assumptions made by both authors indicate their support for approaches rooted in economic liberalism. Firstly, the authors reflect expectations for non-western countries to follow the western model of development as a linear transition from traditional to developed society. Modernization theory demonstrates western countries' destined transformation from pre-industrial to modern and mass-consumption ones. It links it to the ability to stimulate economic growth domestically by a free-market system providing individuals with incentives to pursue self-interests, trade and set up a business (Heywood, 2015). This liberal approach provides a notion of

'development as growth' therefore ‘development failures’ are caused by the internal factors in the society itself: cultural and religious norms, weak institutions, state ingerention etc. In this case, both authors point at cultural differences between west and non-western countries as obstacles to development. Such a view concludes that non-progressive, in-effect inferior cultures should be conformed to eurocentric, westernized values to succeed.

2. Femi Akomolafe (1994) argues in his article “What am I doing in Holland?” that the blame for underdevelopment in Africa is due to the western countries, specifically Europe. He points out how the west uses the strategy “divide-and-conquer” to put the African countries against each other while the European countries make profits off of the African resources. As a response to all the bad things happening in the African countries, the West organizes charities to aid the people in need, when in the first place, it is due to the West providing weapons for the underdeveloped countries that help the commencement of the difficulties faced in the African continent. He explains that Africa would not need Europe’s aid if they would pay a fair price on African products, and not “rob” them of their products. (Akomolafe, 1994). His article can be compared to the dependency theory as the theory clarifies how there is disunion in labor internationally. This can be associated with the way Akomolafe explains how the underdeveloped countries are used as a support for the wealthier countries in the West (Akomolafe, 1994). Furthermore, the theory states that one of the many causes that hinder the underdeveloped countries to develop is the capitalism regulating globally which Akomolafe (1994) mentions by writing about how westerns continuously vote for leaders with the same interest, maintaining capitalism (Akomolafe, 1994). In Ashvin Pandurangi’s (2012) article “Two Myths That Are Keeping The World Poor” he writes about similar things as Akomolafe (1994) did. Pandurangi (2012) refers to Vandan Shiva throughout the text and states that the poor are the ones who have been victims of burglary from the West and that the destruction of the third world countries resulted in the industrial revolution being in favor of the West and their wealth. Furthermore, he writes about how Latin America, Asia, and Africa have suffered a so-called “environmental destruction” due to the West withholding the

West (källa). In addition, the western countries need to realize that the policies of the World Bank and the IMF are in favor of the west and not for Africa (Akomolafe, 1994). Harrison and Mead however do not agree on the power relationship between the rich and poor countries but argue that culture is an obstacle to development. Furthermore, it is said by the authors that the reason behind the non-progress in African countries is values and attitudes that stand in the way of their development (Harrison, 2000). The author Etonga-Manguelle implies in Harrison's article “ Culture matters” (2000) that Africa must “change or perish” and what African countries actually need is a cultural revolution in order to develop. The argument behind the cultural need to develop is that Western and East Asian cultures have proven to be more prone to progress than other cultures (Harrison, 2000). Mead argues that the west has an individualist culture where the individuals act to realize their own goals and value in the outside world whereas non-western societies are more collective-minded and much more cautious (Mead, 2015) which backs up Etonga-Manguelle statement of a need for countries that go through the cultural revolution to promote an economy based on profit motives, work ethic, and individual initiative (Harrison, 2000).

Reference List:

Andrew Heywood (2015), Global Politics , Second Edition, Palgrave Macmillan Ashvin Pandurangi (2012), Two myths that are keeping the world poor http://www.businessinsider.com/two-myths-that-are-keeping-the-world-poor-2012-3? r=US&IR=T&IR=T last accessed: 9/9- Femi Akomolafe (1994), What am I doing in Holland? http://www.hartford- hwp.com/archives/30/011.html last accessed: 9/9-

Lawrence Harrison (2000), Culture Matters, The National Interest , Summer 2000 https://search- proquest-com.proxy.lnu.se/docview/218386319?rfr_id=info%3Axri%2Fsid%3Aprimo last accessed: 10/9- Lawrence M. Mead (2015), The Primacy Contest: Why Culture Matters, Society , Volume 52, Issue 6, pp 527–532, https://link-springer-com.proxy.lnu.se/article/10.1007/s12115-015-9943-x last accessed: 10/9-