Culture matters : how values shape human progress Cover Image

Book

Culture matters : how values shape human progress / Lawrence E. Harrison, Samuel P. Huntington, editors.

Huntington, Samuel P. (Added Author). Harrison, Lawrence E. (Added Author).

Summary:

"Prominent scholars and journalists ponder the question of why, at the beginning of the twenty-first century, the world is more divided than ever between the rich and the poor, between those living in freedom and those under oppression." http://www.loc.gov/catdir/enhancements/fy0832/00022951-d.html.

The Asian and Russian financial crises have helped fuel a growing debate over the impact of culture on economic performance. In this useful guide to the controversy, many authors hark back to Max Weber's essay on the Protestant work ethic and the origins of capitalism in Europe, which showed how Calvinism unintentionally stimulated productive economic activity. Building on this view, David Landes argues that culture does make a difference -- but in ways more complex than is usually acknowledged. Jeffrey Sachs is more skeptical, contending that modern economic growth is directly tied to capitalist institutions and conducive geography but only remotely linked to religious beliefs. Meanwhile, Dwight Perkins examines the impact of culture in business transactions: whereas the West relies on the rule of law backed up by a judiciary, Asia has tended to rely on personal, often family-based, relationships. For Perkins, any institutional practice can work if economic development takes off -- but rule-based systems will increasingly prove superior. In the wrong hands, cultural arguments can be ideological weapons. But in exposing the tangle of causality and processes that link culture and economics, these essays put the debate on a constructive path. -- from http://www.foreignaffairs.com (Sep. 26, 2014).

Record details

ISBN: 0465031757
ISBN: 9780465031757
ISBN: 0465031765
ISBN: 9780465031764
Physical Description: xxxiv, 348 pages : illustrations ; 21 cm
Publisher: New York : Basic Books, ©2000.

Content descriptions

Bibliography, etc. Note:

Includes bibliographical references and index.

Formatted Contents Note:

Culture makes almost all the difference / David Landes -- Attitudes, values, beliefs, and the microeconomics of prosperity / Michael E. Porter -- Notes on a new sociology of economic development / Jeffrey Sachs -- A cultural typology of economic development / Mariano Grondona -- Culture and the behavior of elites in Latin America / Carlos Alberto Montaner -- Does Africa need a cultural adjustment program? / Daniel Etounga-Manguelle -- Culture and democracy / Ronald Inglehart -- Social capital / Francis Fukuyama -- Corruption, culture, and markets / Seymour Martin Lipset and Gabriel Salman Lenz -- Traditional beliefs and practices: Are some better than others? / Robert B. Edgerton -- Culture, childhood, and progress in Sub-Saharan Africa / Thomas S. Weisner -- Moral maps, "first world" conceits, and the new evangelists / Richard A. Shweder -- Culture, gender, and human rights / Barbara Crossette -- Culture, institutions, and gender inequality in Latin America / Mala Htun -- Taking culture seriously: a framework and an Afro-American illustration / Orlando Patterson -- Disaggregating culture / Nathan Glazer -- Law, family ties, and the East Asian way of business / Dwight H. Perkins -- "Asian values": from dynamos to dominoes? / Lucian W. Pye -- Multiple modernities: a preliminary inquiry into the implications of East Asian modernity / Tu Wei-ming -- Changing the mind of a nation: elements in a process for creating prosperity / Michael Fairbanks -- Culture, mental models, and national prosperity / Stace Lindsay -- Promoting progressive cultural change / Lawrence E. Harrison.