Abstract
To an increasing extent, nationals of Third World countries are protesting against the tendency of foreign theoreticians and observers to study their problems — political problems in particular — in terms of concepts and theories established on the basis of European experiences. For instance, the Egyptian Abdel Malek1 in La dialectique sociale, writes: ‘At the starting point, whose broad lines we sketch here, there is evidence of inadequation, deriving from the fact of difference. Inadequation of the conceptual system of the social sciences. Differences between Western societies — which have provided the larger part of the analytical material for the conceptual elaboration and establishment of theoretical systems in different disciplines — on the one hand, and non-Western societies (those of Asia, Africa and Latin America) on the other hand.’ This does not mean that the author impugns universalism and that he advocates enclosing the Third World in a sort of intellectual ghetto, overemphasizing its specificity, and constituting as it were ‘reserves’ designed to highlight the exotic aspect for the benefit of foreigners.2 On the contrary, what he takes sociology to task for is its insufficiently universal and universalizing nature. This being so, his aim is to make concepts more universal and to rebuild theory with the help of reshaped concepts.
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Notes
See also Babacar Sine: Impérialisme et théories sociologiques du développement, Anthropos, 1975
Regarding the concept of specificity, see the Introduction of Abdel Malek to: Spécificité et théorie socialey, Anthropos, 1976.
See also G. Lavau: ‘Le système politique et son environnement, Revue Française de Sociologie, Special Issue 1970/1971, pp.169–181.
‘Fonctionalisme et dialectique’, L’Homme et la société, No. 12, 1969, p. 142.
An example of this formalist attitude is to be found in the paper by G. Conac, in Table ronde de l’IEP, Bordeaux, February 1977: ‘Le présidentialisme en Afrique Noire. Unité et diversité. Essai de typologie.’ See R. Moulin: ‘Le présidentialisme et la classification des régimes politiques, Libraire Générale de Droit, Paris 1979.
This is why we have produced the Encyclopédie Politique et Constitutionnelle (Série Afrique), Editions Berger-Levrault. A monograph is devoted to each African State. We have also prepared a series of works under joint authorship on political régimes in the Third World (Editor: P.F. Gonidec). The first volume deals with the Arab League States. Series ‘Constitutions’ published in 1979 by the Nouvelles éditions africaines.’ — Series ‘Studies’ (Vol. I, in press).
See the unpublished study by J. Owona: ‘Sociétés multinationales et systèmes politiques d’Afrique Noire’, 248 roneotyped pages.
‘Dépendance et indépendance économiques’, paper given at the Indépendance et dépendance Symposium, FNSP, Paris, 1976.
G. Rocher: Talcott Parsons et la sociologie américaine, PUF, 1972.
Report presented in 1959 and published under the title: Political Development in the New States, The Hague, 1960.
See R.G. Schwartzenberg: Manuel de sociologie politique, 2nd edn, 1974, pp. 225 et seq.
See chap. XI of Comparative Politics, entitled: ‘Towards a theory of political development’. This book has been translated and adapted under the title: Analyse comparée des systèmes politiques. Une théorie nouvelle, Edition Internationale, 1970, Hachette.
Sociologie des mutations, p. 161.
Political Order in Changing Societies, New Haven, 1968.
Politics in Indonesia, 1966.
Mao Tse-tung, A propos de la contradiction, August 1937.
Aspects of Political Development, Boston, 1966, chap. II.
See the author’s Manuel de Relations Internationales, Editions Montchrestien, 2nd edn, 1977.
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© 1981 Martinus Nijhoff Publishers bv, The Hague
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Gonidec, P.F. (1981). Introduction. In: African Politics. Springer, Dordrecht. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-94-009-8902-3_1
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