Culture Matters

What is this book about?

This is a collection of essays edited by Samuel Huntington and Lawrence Harrison, bringing together economists, political scientists, and sociologists. Drawing on large bodies of cross-national data, the contributors argue that culture and values deeply shape a country's economic development and its prospects for democracy: different value orientations lead to different institutional outcomes. The central claim — that cultures differ in how well they support prosperity and democracy — has provoked long and bitter argument, both inside and outside the academy.

Why read it?

It is a heavyweight collection in political science and sociology that argues from data, challenging the relativist position that cultures cannot be judged. For readers interested in why national development diverges, it offers a powerful explanatory framework. But precisely because its conclusions are sensitive, it is the kind of book that most needs critical reading: attributing a nation's fate to culture slides easily into cultural determinism, and even into blaming poor countries for their poverty.

Core Ideas

• Where economic prosperity and democratic rule are concerned, cultures and values do differ in quality.
• Different value orientations lead to different institutional outcomes and paths of development.
• Cultures that emphasize self-expression and secular-rational values are more conducive to prosperity and democracy.
• The influence of culture and values on a nation's fate can be tested against cross-national data.

What questions does this book try to answer?

• Do cultures differ in quality, or are all value systems equally valid?
• Should we admit that one set of values is more favourable to human progress than another?

Who should read it?

For readers interested in international politics, sociology, and questions of cultural value, and for anyone who wants to understand the "culture and development" debate. It is a scholarly collection with plenty of jargon; read the editors' introduction first for the overall frame, then choose among the chapters.

How to Read It

Using charts from the World Values Survey and similar sources, the book argues that cultures emphasizing self-expression and secular-rational values are more likely to produce prosperity and democracy. Read it as one side of an argument, not as a settled verdict: supporters say it breaks the spell of relativism, critics say it reduces complex structural problems to culture. How the authors handle the difference between correlation and causation is the key to judging the book's persuasiveness.