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Political Development in the New States (II)

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  03 June 2009

Edward Shils
Edward Shils
Affiliation:
University of Chicago
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Extract

The elites of the new states are seeking to a greater extent than ever before to create something new. Their aspirations are cast on a more drastic and more comprehensive scale even than those of the European revolutionaries who have flourished since 1789. They are working to a model, which however vague in its details, is more elaborate and more exogenous than those which guided the formation of the modern state in Great Britain, France, Germany and the United States. These were, of course, influenced by models drawn from outside their own territories and their own current culture. The models of the Roman Republic, of the China of the Mandarins, of the British Constitution as portrayed by Montesquieu have played their parts in the formation of modern Western states. They were, however, only fragments accepted in isolation or as parts of a larger program which was constructed largely from elements already existent and accepted in the situation to be reformed. There was moreover very much in their current situation which they were prepared to accept.

Type
Research Article
Information
Comparative Studies in Society and History , Volume 2 , Issue 4 , July 1960 , pp. 379 - 411
Copyright
Copyright © Society for the Comparative Study of Society and History 1960

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References

1 Thought about Communism and the Soviet Union in the new states is about at the level which is reached in Europe from 1925 to 1935. Communism is regarded as the same as traditionally democratic socialism, with certain qualifications which have had to be introduced because it came into life in an economically backward country, in a situation of severe crisis and under the leadership of tough-minded men who wish to get ahead with their tasks rather than to content themselves with the pious platitudes of Social Democrats and bourgeois reformers. Even this, however, represents a fairly high degree of sophistication since it acknowledges some divergence from the regime of representative government and public liberty. In most instances, there is a reasonably honest unawareness of these divergences. Lenin's view that Soviet democracy is a thousand times more democratic than bourgeois democracy is widely accepted among admirers of the Soviet regimes. The number of educated persons I met in India who favored Communism while acknowledging that it is not democratic was strikingly meagre.

Knowledge about the internal affairs of Soviet states, other than the general appreciation of their industrial progress, their elimination of the rich, their racial tolerance, and their universal educational opportunity is exceptionally slight. Nor is there any serious curiosity about what goes on there. But that is why Communism is thought by many persons in the new states to be another and more efficient way to democracy.

2 Freedom from corruption of the highest levels is a necessity for the maintenance of public respect of Government and for maintaining relations of mutual respect with the legislative branch. It is probably also necessary for the sake of efficiency and honesty throughout the service. At the lower levels, a modicum of small-scale corruption is probably not too injurious since it introduces a certain amount of flexibility, it “humanizes” government and makes it less awesome.

3 As far as I know, the “theory” of Kemalism which could perform this function, has few explicit proponents. The eccentric Nigerian mathematician, Dr. Chik Obe is an exception.