Tradition versus democracy in the South Pacific
Subtitle: Fiji, Tonga, and Western Samoa
By: Stephanie Lawson.
Series: Cambridge Asia-Pacific studies
Publisher: Cambridge University Press
Published: 1996
Place of publication: Cambridge; New York
Language: eng
Number of pages: 228
Subjects: Democracy -- Oceania -- Case studies.; Fiji -- Politics and government.; Tonga -- Politics and government.; Samoa -- Politics and government.
Genres: Case studies.
Description: 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.
Notes: Includes bibliographical references (p. 206-221) and index.