The Obstacle of Traditionalism in the Third World

Abstract

As we have seen, the criteria of political development that we are examining have a background in Western, particularly European, political experience. Moreover, political development in Europe occurred over many centuries. As politics changed, so also traditional styles of life were slowly refashioned. Certain features of traditionalism disappeared in a slow process of erosion; or others were absorbed into the new patterns of life. Consequently it is not surprising that with their own truly traditional styles of living so far behind them, Western students of political change in third-world states do not always appreciate that traditionality was supreme and unchallenged in the third world until very recently. In large areas of the third world, particularly outside the large towns, a traditional way of life may still be observed in some of its main features. And those who have become modernised still often act traditionally, if under modern forms. In the third-world states there is a huge gap between actual political, economic and social behaviour and that envisaged by those who would have them politically and in other ways developed.