The democratic impact of cultural values in Africa and Asia: The cases of South Korea and South Africa

Abstract

Traditional cultural values have long been seen by scholars as a significant obstacle to political and economic development in the post colonial world, especially in Africa and Asia. Publics which prioritise things like the collective good of the family and community over procedure and individual rights, grant uncritical respect to authority and social hierarchy, and identify themselves primarily as members of sub-national kinship groups rather than modern nationstates, are said to be particularly inhospitable places for representative democracies and market economies to take root.