Hearts, Minds and Schools

With these words in mind, I've spent the past four years leading the Culture Matters Research Project at the Fletcher School at Tufts University, where I am a senior research fellow. The effort has involved 65 social scientists, journalists, politicians and development practitioners from 25 countries. We undertook case studies of more than two dozen countries in Africa, the Americas, Asia and Europe, several of which had experienced or were undergoing transformations from traditional to modern societies.

Our goal was to capture the role of culture and cultural change in a society's evolution. We found that Confucian values of education, achievement and merit played a central role in the economic "miracles" in East Asia. Open economic policies and the welcoming of foreign investment triggered several transformations, including in India, Ireland and Spain. Visionary leadership was crucial in the cases of Botswana, Turkey and Quebec. In Ireland, Italy, Spain and Quebec, modernization was also accompanied by decline in the influence of the Catholic Church.

We concluded that enlightened policies can, over time, produce cultural change -- change that in turn spurs political pluralism and economic development. However, it is extremely difficult to impose such changes from outside; war is not a helpful instrument. Better tools include education that inculcates democratic and entrepreneurial values; improved child-rearing practices; religious reform; and development assistance keyed to cultural change.

The first step is to end illiteracy, which is the greatest obstacle to progressive cultural change. It impedes the human capacity to learn and perpetuates fatalism and superstition. Human progress lags most in societies in which illiteracy is highest, above all in Islamic countries and Africa. Literacy among women may be even more important than literacy among men because of the crucial role women play in child-rearing.

A second, longer-term goal is ensuring a high school education for all. Spain offers a telling example: In 1965, during the Franco dictatorship, 38 percent of the country's high school-age population was in school; in 1982, seven years after Spain's transition to democracy, it was 88 percent.

Child-rearing techniques must also be rethought. Traditional child-rearing patterns are sustained from generation to generation, yet in many countries such customs may instill values that impede progress for individuals and for society. For example, Costa Rican psychiatrist Luis Diego Herrera argues that child rearing in his country typically upholds shrewdness over honesty. "Children are taught contradictory standards of behavior," he said. "They are supposed to abide by the rules, but if they break them, the important thing is to get away with it."

Reducing the role of religion in politics and religious reform more broadly may also be crucial, particularly in the case of Islam. The groundbreaking U.N. Arab Human Development Reports stress openness to the values, ideas and institutions of the non-Islamic world, including tolerance of other religions and commitment to education and gender equality. The advocacy group Freedom House judges not one Arab country to be free, and that has much to do with a culture that nurtures authoritarianism, discourages dissent and places a lower priority on education.

Catholic ambivalence about free markets has contributed to Latin America's costly dalliances with socialism, a point stressed by Catholic writer Michael Novak. Orthodox Christianity's similar ambivalence has contributed to anti-capitalist currents in Russia and elsewhere in Eastern Europe. Support of democratic capitalism by both religions, coupled with their concern about injustice, corruption and crime, could play a key role in progressive cultural change.

Finally, aid agencies and universities must take culture seriously. Because their staffs include professionals committed to cultural relativism, such institutions have largely avoided confronting cultural obstacles to progress. However, they can play an important role in support of reform-minded national leaders by integrating culture into their research, strategies and projects.

Culture does matter. But politics can change culture and enable more rapid progress, substantially transforming societies within a generation. The anguish of the U.S. adventure in Iraq, genocide and famine in Africa, and the huge flow of poor people seeking a better life in rich countries are among the vivid reminders of how difficult it is to create a more democratic, just and prosperous world. Confronting culture can make that challenge more manageable.

lawrence.harrison@tufts.edu

Lawrence E. Harrison is author of "The Central Liberal Truth: How Politics Can Change a Culture and Save It From Itself" (Oxford University Press).