Culture Matters : How Values Shape Human Progress

by Huntington, Samuel P.; Huntington, Samuel P.

• ISBN13: 9780465031757
• ISBN10: 0465031757
• Format: Hardcover
• Copyright: 2000-04-01
• Publisher: Perseus Books Group

Summary

The world at the beginning of the twenty-first century is more divided than ever between the rich and the poor, between those living in freedom and those under oppression. Even in prosperous democracies, troubling gaps in well-being persist. As the credibility of traditional explanations--colonialism, dependency, racism--declines, many now believe that the principal reason why some countries and ethnic groups are better off than others lies in the cultural values that powerfully shape nations and people's political, economic, and social performance. Many of the distinguished contributors toCulture Mattersbelieve that value and attitude change is indispensable to progress for those who are lagging.Among the prominent scholars and journalists contributing to the volume are Francis Fukuyama, Nathan Glazer, David Landes, Seymour Martin Lipset, Orlando Patterson, Michael Porter, Jeffrey Sachs, and Richard Shweder.

Table of Contents

Table and Illustrations	ix
Acknowledgments	xi
Foreword	xiii
Samuel P. Huntington
Introduction	xvii
Lawrence E. Harrison
I Culture and Economic Development
Culture Makes Almost All the Difference	2	(12)
David Landes
Attitudes, Values, Beliefs, and the Microeconomics of Prosperity	14	(15)
Michael E. Porter
Notes on a New Sociology of Economic Development	29	(15)
Jeffrey Sachs
A Cultural Typology of Economic Development	44	(12)
Mariano Grondona
Culture and the Behavior of Elites in Latin America	56	(9)
Carlos Alberto Montaner
Does Africa Need a Cultural Adjustment Program?	65	(15)
Daniel Etounga-Manguelle
II Culture and Political Development
Culture and Democracy	80	(18)
Ronald Inglehart
Social Capital	98	(14)
Francis Fukuyama
Corruption, Culture, and Markets	112	(14)
Seymour Martin Lipset
Gabriel Salman Lenz
III The Anthropological Debate
Traditional Beliefs and Practices---Are Some Better than Others?	126	(15)
Robert B. Edgerton
Culture, Childhood, and Progress in Sub-Saharan Africa	141	(17)
Thomas S. Weisner
Moral Maps, ``First World'' Conceits, and the New Evangelists	158	(20)
Richard A. Shweder
IV Culture and Gender
Culture, Gender, and Human Rights	178	(11)
Barbara Crossette
Culture, Institutions, and Gender Inequality in Latin America	189	(13)
Mala Htun
V Culture and American Minorities
Taking Culture Seriously: A Framework and an Afro-American Illustration	202	(17)
Orlando Patterson
Disaggregating Culture	219	(13)
Nathan Glazer
VI The Asian Crisis
Law, Family Ties, and the East Asian Way of Business	232	(12)
Dwight H. Perkins
``Asian Values'': From Dynamos to Dominoes?	244	(12)
Lucian W. Pye
Multiple Modernities: A Preliminary Inquiry into the Implications of East Asian Modernity	256	(12)
Tu Wei-Ming
VII Promoting Change
Changing the Mind of a Nation: Elements in a Process for Creating Prosperity	268	(14)
Michael Fairbanks
Culture, Mental Models, and National Prosperity	282	(14)
Stace Lindsay
Promoting Progressive Cultural Change	296	(13)
Lawrence E. Harrison
Notes	309	(20)
Biographical Sketches of Contributors	329	(4)
Index	333