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Klappentext Much recent literature on non-Western countries celebrates the renaissance of indigenous culture, Tradition Versus Democracy in the South Pacific, however, looks more critically at Fiji, Tonga and Western Samoa, showing how current movements to reclaim and celebrate 'tradition' may protect the power and privileges of indigenous elites and promote political conservatism. Stephanie Lawson argues that opposition to 'Western' democracy in the name of 'tradition' is not necessarily representative of indigenous people at the grassroots level, and is often carefully manipulated to benefit an elite. Lawson is critical of cultural relativism, a concept which, she suggests, limits the discussion of democracy in non-Western countries and leads to deterministic stereotypes. Relativism can also reinscribe an essentialist framework, creating an ethical void in which little of critical value can be said. She is equally skeptical, however, of universalist positions which seek to promote a single, fixed conception of democratic politics and which can be as dogmatic in assumption as relativist modes of theorizing. Zusammenfassung This book looks at the way in which the idea of 'tradition' is used by political elites to legitimate certain practices and institutions. Inhaltsverzeichnis List of maps; List of tables; Preface; Introduction; 1. Tradition and democracy; 2. Constitutional development, chiefly power, and the politics of tradition in Fiji; 3. The monarchy versus democracy in the kingdom of Tonga; 4. Preserving tradition through democratisation: the introduction of universal suffrage in Western Samoa; 5. Conclusion: tradition versus the west; Notes; Bibliography; Index.
