| Tradition Versus Democracy in the South Pacific: Fiji, Tonga and Western Samoa Contributor(s): Lawson, Stephanie (Author) |
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ISBN: 0521496381 ISBN-13: 9780521496384 Publisher: Cambridge University Press OUR PRICE: $143.45 Product Type: Hardcover - Other Formats Published: January 1996 Annotation: Much recent literature on non-Western countries celebrates the renaissance of indigenous culture, Tradition Versus Democracy in the South Pacific, however, looks more critically at Fiji, Tonga and Western Samoa, showing how current movements to reclaim and celebrate 'tradition' may protect the power and privileges of indigenous elites and promote political conservatism. Stephanie Lawson argues that opposition to 'Western' democracy in the name of 'tradition' is not necessarily representative of indigenous people at the grassroots level, and is often carefully manipulated to benefit an elite. Lawson is critical of cultural relativism, a concept which, she suggests, limits the discussion of democracy in non-Western countries and leads to deterministic stereotypes. Relativism can also reinscribe an essentialist framework, creating an ethical void in which little of critical value can be said. She is equally skeptical, however, of universalist positions which seek to promote a single, fixed conception of democratic politics and which can be as dogmatic in assumption as relativist modes of theorizing. |
| Additional Information |
| BISAC Categories: - Political Science | International Relations - General - Political Science | Political Process - General |
| Dewey: 320.995 |
| LCCN: 95032415 |
| Series: Cambridge Asia-Pacific Studies |
| Physical Information: 0.83" H x 6.3" W x 9.26" (1.17 lbs) 244 pages |
| Descriptions, Reviews, Etc. |
| Publisher Description: This study analyzes the ways in which political elites use the idea of tradition to legitimize certain practices and institutions. Within this framework, case studies focus on constitutional development and the chiefly power in Fiji, the monarchy and the Pro-Democracy Movement in Tonga, and the political issues surrounding the move to universal suffrage in Western Samoa. The book provides a critical approach to the political implications of romanticizing non-Western cultural traditions, especially in terms of democratic development. |
