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Ideology, Political Religion, and Modernization: Some Theoretical and Empirical Explorations
Published online by Cambridge University Press: 23 May 2014
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My purpose in doing this paper is two-fold. First, I will offer a textual analytical critique of Apter's (1964, 1965, 1968) theoretical speculations on the links between ideology and political religion on the one hand and ideology and modernization on the other. In doing so, I shall put forward my own views concerning the role of ideology in the modernization process. Second, I will examine the uses of ideology in Tanzania in the light of my own theoretical speculations on the links between ideology and modernization. I propose the thesis that ideology, political religion, and modernization are concerned and connected with the management of culture and culture change.
Apter's concern with the theoretical examination of the links between ideology and modernization in Africa has resulted, as some have claimed (Nellis, 1972: 39), in the generation of a number of thought-provoking hypotheses about the modernization process. Apter writes with a facility that is arresting and stimulating. Yet my argument is that, although much is perceptive and clear in his discussion of the role of ideology and political religion in the modernization process, perhaps much more is vague and obscure. Broad generalizations are offered as if they had universal validity, and models are set up as if they were mutually exclusive of one another.
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- Copyright © African Studies Association 1976