Increasingly, social scientists are using culture to explain modernization, political democratization, military strategy, the behaviour of ethnic groups, and the alignment and antagonism among countries. The central conservative truth is that it is culture, not politics, that determine the success of a society. The central liberal truth is that politics can change a culture and save it from itself. But they are quick to point out that they use culture in this book in purely subjective terms as the values, attitudes, beliefs, orientations, and the core assumptions common among people in a society. Francis Fukuyama incisively explains this as revolving around the social capital of a society.
Trust acts like a lubricant that makes any group or organization run more efficiently.
Social capital produces norms, which solidly include virtues like truth telling, meeting obligations, and reciprocity. This entirely comes in the face of the World Bank and other international agencies short of ideas. Etounga-Manguelle reveals to us that because of many different facets of the African soul it is difficult to see ourselves properly. Etounga-Manguelle reports that traditional Africa is hierarchical, making the society static and politically centralized, with the elites controlling the wealth. The generations pass without significant change in mind-set.