Political development: contextual nonlinear perspectives

Abstract

The new perspective in a theory of political development analyzed in this article stresses that all nations are developing and that the sharp division between those systems thought to be developed and others which are “developing” has limited utility. It is argued that the reconstruction of political systems should take place with due respect for the total cultural configuration. This includes distinctive psychic needs, regard for an unbroken continuum of culture, peculiar economic and geographical circumstances and experiential condition of the populace. The nonlinearity implicit in this view assumes that there is no inevitable progression from a “bad” or “under‐developed” system to a “good” or “developed” system. On the contrary, the assumption is that all political systems are perennially being reconstructed in a series of oscillations varying in quality and speed among the various components of the total society.

Many of the problems encountered in political development theory arise from a failure to relate the evolution of new nations established since 1947 to earlier experiences of cultural change. Such experience includes the colonial activity of the United States, Britain, France the Netherlands and Spain; the enormously rich global programs of both Roman Catholic occupations of Germany, Japan and Korea.