Crises and Sequences in Political Development

Contributors: Leonard Binder, James S. Colman, Joseph LaPalombara, Lucian W. Pye, Sidney Verba, and Myron Weiner. Princeton University Press, 1971

Review Article - IS 716 - Comparative Politics

Rockie L. Beasley

The forward written by Professor Pye states the book is the 7th in a series of studies and was the result of identification and analysis of five key crises (or problems) in the development syndrome that have always historically appeared. The five identified crises were: (1) Identity, (2) Legitimacy, (3) Participation, (4) Penetration, and (5) Distribution. They also discovered that the context and order (sequence) of the crises might be decisive in the historical evolution of all political systems. Each contributor wrote concerning one of the crises while Professors Pye and LaPalimba took two. Professor Binder opens the first chapter stating that man has been concerned for ten generations with understanding and controlling the changes of his condition and circumstances. Stability would not be valued if change were not known. He also states that the idea of necessary sequences suggests we will find the material for a theory of political development in history. One question posed is whether political development is thought to be the dependant or the independent variable (European model), or whether modernization is considered the dependent variable and political development the independent (extra-European)? Professor Binder speaks about the synthesis of modernity and poses that modernity is closely associated with important changes in intellectual areas and the creation of new disciplines. He identifies that the path to modernity involves critical changes of, (1) identity from the religious to the ethnic and from parochial to the societal; (2) legitimacy from the transcendental to immanent sources; (3) political participation from elite to mass and from family to group; (4) distribution from status and privilege to ability, achievement and the control and management of capitol, and; (5) degree of administrative and legal penetration into social structure and out to the remote regions of the country. He sums up his chapter with the assumption that modernization allows the possibility of admitting all

groups to full political participation. Political development therefore is the process by which we make this happen. The late Professor Coleman focused on the evolutionary prospective of development syndrome instead of the historical or typological. He believed part of the political development process was a continuous interaction among the processes of modernization and the concepts of (1) structural differentiation, (2) imperative of equality, and the (3) integrative, responsive, adaptive capacity of a political system. These three elements are interdependent and can be mutually

supportive or conflictive. They are not however coordinate. Professor Pye covered both Identity & Legitimacy crises and demonstrated that they are closely related and overlapping. He states modernization involves a ceaseless straining and tugging between development process and the requirement of the political system to maintain itself as an effective integrated system capable of performing universal functions basic to all political systems. History is of an enduring significance as the problem of the relationship of tradition to change was a central theme in ten different national case studies. Identity and Legitimacy crises are fundamentally problems of attitudes and sentiment (differences between those who rule and those that are ruled). Mass political culture is formed by attitudes and orientation toward politics of the population as a whole. Identity and legitimacy determine how people come to understand politics, view authority, what is felt the proper role of government, and what is the character and intensity of their loyalty. Other problems identified were a tendency to overemphasize words and ideologies and an uncertainty on how existing political system can be effectively used. Four types of identity crises were identified: (1) National identity and territory; (2) Identity and Class; (3) National identity and ethnic divisions, and; (4) Identity crisis and social change. Leadership plays a crucial role in resolving identity crises and creating basis for national unity. Legitimacy differs in that once an identity is established it is imperative to specify which structures arte considered authoritative and which are to be politically supportive. Since this deals

with government, it is also fundamental in determining capacity. Overthrows of governments by the military - the Egyptian coup of King Farouk by Nasser - are examples of legitimacy issues as they alterations in nature of government authority. The development syndrome produces a widening perception on the part of a large number of people in possibilities of alternative ways of doing things. The resolution for all legitimacy crises again call for dynamic leadership. The Late Professor Weiner tackled the participation crisis. He began with basic, fundamental questions: (a) Should the masses be permitted to organize themselves?; (b) Will the common good survive?; (c) Should the masses be permitted to express opinions or should the government impose limits - for the good of society?; (d) Under what condition(s) do people have the right, and moral obligation, to change their government? Professor Weiner then provided ten different definitions of participation. The various definitions suggest we deal with a continuum instead of a dichotomous concept. For the purpose of the book, he looked at political participation as: (1) Action - verbal, feelings; (2) Voluntary - conscripted service/required actions discounted; (3) Choice - citizens had more that one candidate/option. In modern industrial societies there's a tendency for some of the young to feel dissatisfied with institutions as they believe they destroy human spontaneity by establishing rules and imposing restraints. Ironically they will use political participation to undermine the process of

institutionalization. Professor LaPalombara writes of the Penetration and Distribution crises. The crisis of penetration relates primarily to certain changes in government performance and certain kinds of outputs of the political system. Purposeful or unanticipated changes have been introduced to the human environment that test organizational, technological, and/or diplomatic capabilities of an existing government. The changes also dramatically bring to the surface problems of

institutionalization. No nation-state has ever succeeded for long in achieving total geographic or socio-psychological penetration.

Distribution crises mainly deals with those that govern and tend to (a) recur, (b) are less permanently resolved than identity, legitimacy and participation crises; (c) every developed country was then currently experiencing the problem in one form or another, and; (d) several countries had reached an intense or crisis level. The crisis of distribution directly challenges the ability of the existing elites to adapt existing institutions to the new demand situations or to create new ones. The Distribution crisis has two dimensions of demand that exist: (1) finding a way and means of producing more of the valued material goods; (2) change the basis upon which things valued are distributed. Either may reach crisis proportion at any time and on a recurring basis. There are large ranges of factors that seem to impinge on distribution that are material in nature. There is also the certainty demand will be greater than the government ability to accommodate all of them. Professor Verba summarizes the book as a framework for the study of political development, to give order to what otherwise appears as a disorderly subject. He prefers the term 'problem areas' to the word 'crisis.' The crises were not yet a theory as they do not present a coherent and

interdependent set of propositions. The relationship between the phenomena leads to the next step in focusing on sequences. He states to be given full consideration, sequence requires all crises be considered at the same time. There was no attempt made to construct a particular sequential model of the 'crisis approach,' but instead the intent was to raise issues that he felt needed consideration in an attempt to construct one. He concludes the book with the hope that attempts to deal with the difficult task of converting the 'five crises scheme' into a more precise model of political development would be made. He feared that discussions of sequences would remain quite vague. The book was exceptional in both the examples provided for each crisis presented and the way it read as if from one author instead of several different contributors. The way each preceding chapter tied into the succeeding one helped show both causal relationships and made the sequential aspect seem very logical.