Government Confronts Culture

Transitional societies-struggling to build democratic institutions and new political traditions-are faced with a painful dilemma. How can Government become strong and effective, building a common good that unites disparate ethnic and class groups, while simultaneously nurturing democratic social rules at the grassroots? Professor Fuller brings this issue to light in the contentious, multicultural setting of Southern Africa. Post-apartheid states, like South Africa and Namibia, are pushing hard to raise school quality, reduce family poverty, and equalize gender relations inside villages and townships. But will democratic participation blossom at the grassroots as long as strong central states-so necessary for defining the common good-push universal policies onto diverse local communities? This book builds from a decade of family surveys and qualitative village studies led by Professor Fuller at Harvard University and African colleagues inside Botswana, Namibia, and South Africa.

Auteur

Bruce Fuller

Contenu

Part I: When Policy Hits Cultural Borders

1: Can the Modern State Work in Multicultural Societies?

2: Beyond Cultureless Conceptions of Policy Making

Part II: Namibia: the First Post-Apartheid Experiment

3: Post-Apartheid Nation Building

4: Ethnic Archipelagos

Part III: South Africa: a Fragile State Balanced on Conflicting Cultures

5: A Promising Mystery

6: Democracy Down Under?

Part IV: Botswana: a Stable State, but a Democratic Society?

7: Can the State Democratize Gender Roles?

8: After the Modern State