Review by Kevin Baldeosingh
For several decades now, scholar Lawrence Harrison has headed the world's leading research project on cultural values. He and his team do not approach culture in the ill-defined and hypothetical manner of most cultural theorists, but use a rigorous paradigm which has yielded insights which can inform effective policy-making.
This book places particular attention on religion as a driver of cultural values. "Culture matters, and culture is profoundly, although not exclusively, influenced by religion or an ethical code like Confucianism," Harrison writes. His research turns on its head the argument of religious apologists who, whenever atrocities are committed in the name of religious belief, assert that religion is subsumed by culture.
The book's title is informed by the progressive values of these three religio-cultural groups.
There are 11 chapters, which lay out the theoretical framework, the empirical data, and provides in-depth analyses of Jewish, Western European and East Asian achievement, as well as other groups in other countries where culture explains, for example, the economic success of Lebanese everywhere in the world (except of course Lebanon).
Of particular relevance to Trinidad is the achievements of the Scots who created the modern world, according to the main book title Harrison cites. The relevance is that Presbyterianism started in Scotland and emphasised importance of universal literacy while doing away with superstructure of authority. By the end of the 18th century, despite being relatively poor and having a small population, Scotland's literacy rate was higher than that of any other country at that time.
The academic performance of Presbyterians institutions in Trinidad can arguably be traced back to this root.
Harrison in fact argues, and provides evidence to support his argument, that Protestantism has been more conducive to modernisation than Catholicism, especially in the Western hemisphere.
Indeed, he goes so far to write that "the Reformation was the single most important event in the history of human progress", asserting that, had the Catholic Church retained its political and cultural dominance of the Western hemisphere, the Industrial Revolution would not have happened and democratic governance would be unknown.
He points out that the Catholic Church didn't unreservedly endorse democratic governance until 1963 and argues that "The authoritarian traditions of East Asia and Latin America are both strong, and both regions have had difficulties in constructing democratic/pluralist institutions.
But, unlike Iberian culture, East Asian culture also stresses values–education, work, discipline, merit, frugality–that, if not squelched by bureaucracy, are powerful engines of economic growth and economic pluralism."
In this regard, Harrison cites the exception of Costa Rica, which has long been South America's most successful nation, but notes the disproportionate influence of Jews who were early settlers there.
Whereas Judaism nurtures rationalism, achievement, and promotes material pursuits, says Harrison, "Islam and Catholicism, which focus on the afterlife and are more utopian and rigid in their doctrines.
"The traditional Confucian society was aristocratic, authoritarian, and static...But Confucius also placed heavy emphasis on education as an engine of progress," he writes.
The final chapter gives a list of cultural values that a country should aspire too if it wants to achieve economic and political advancement. But exactly how this can happen is something that neither Harrison nor anyone else has figured out.