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Tradition Versus Democracy in the South Pacific
Stephanie Lawson
其他書名
Fiji, Tonga and Western Samoa
出版Cambridge University Press, 1996-01-26
主題Political Science / GeneralPolitical Science / Political Ideologies / DemocracyPolitical Science / International Relations / GeneralPolitical Science / Political Process / GeneralPolitical Science / World / Australian & OceanianSocial Science / Customs & Traditions
ISBN05214963819780521496384
URLhttp://books.google.com.hk/books?id=nnnO_C7NsKEC&hl=&source=gbs_api
EBookSAMPLE
註釋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.