CPO-2002 Lecture 26: Lecture 26
Document Summary
Primordialist arguments treat culture as something that is objective and inherited; something that has been fixed since (cid:862)p(cid:396)i(cid:373)o(cid:396)dial(cid:863) ti(cid:373)es. Constructivist arguments treat culture as something that is constructed or invented rather than inherited. Primordialist arguments imply that democracy is not for everyone. However, cultures are malleable, and are not given once and for all. The notion that democracy or authoritarianism is more suited to some cultures than others has a long history. Montesquieu (1721, 1752) each form of government requires definite cultural patterns to be present to endure: Democracy is most suited to the ancient world. This argument would be echoed in the asian values debate in the 1990s. Says that is it only by chance that you can successfully export the institutions of one country to another. John stuart mill (1861) (cid:862)no one believes that every people is capable of working every sort of i(cid:374)stitutio(cid:374). (cid:863)
