Thank you for reviving the question Chris. When I asked the question last week about whether or not there is an inherently "African" system, I think people gave it more of a racial interpretation than anything else. (Steve brought up a great point that Africa has no more of an "African" system than European descendants have an affinity for monarchy). However, my question is whether Africa is so inherently different than Europe that it requires a different type of system (economic, political, social). Africa has a different climate, geography, ecosystem, set of diseases, natural disasters, etc. than is found in Europe. Because of these differences, is it possible that people would have to behave in a different way? Could we argue that people in different environments would also interact differently with each other? For these reasons I ask if perhaps there is some system that would work better in the physical environment of Africa than our "Western" system of capitalism and democracy.
I have no scientific basis for this question. Does anyone know if there has been research conducted to examine correlations between physical geography/environment and the type of social systems adopted by a culture?
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Bryson, I agree with your point of view. Africa, although so diverse, shares common cultural traits and geographic characteristics that could be taken into account when reconstructing governments and economies. Swaziland, for example, is a successful African nation formed around a tribal monarchy.
ReplyDeleteI think there's wide recognition of the fact that the tropics are relatively less developed. The subtitle of Bill Easterly's first book is "Economists' adventures and misadventures in the Tropics." I think it's a fascinating topic, and super interdisciplinary. Also, I don't think we've figured it out. It could be that Western solutions could work, but can't be imposed; or it could be that an entirely paradigm is needed. I think we'll keepcoming back to this theme.
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