Outliers’ Public Administrator of the Week

PAD6836 Lecture 13 University of North Florida Master of Public Administration program PAD 6836 Comparative public administration Culture, and ‘outliers’ Public administrator of the Week photo credit Taufa'ahau Tupou I First King, modern Tonga That the world is becoming more 'globalized' is something that we all take for granted these days, and as many people point out, the cultural part of this 'globalization' has a strongly European (in which category I include the US) flavour to it. There are no isolated cultural islands in the world today, immune from what I refer to as the 'global Anglophone super culture'. Tonga has been an especially interesting example of the process of incorporation of these non-European societies into this Europe-driven globalization process. The islands were settled by Polynesians a millennium or two ago. They were a world unto themselves for much of this period, with only tenuous links to Samoa and Fiji (the Tongans, indeed, were great imperialists, meddling in the affairs of both societies -- click link). Then came the European explorers, with an impact not unlike what the arrival of intergalactic invaders from the planet Mok would have on the US. These explorers had technologies and weapons that seemed magical, and were so far superior to that of the Tongans that the Europeans could dominate more or less at will.1 To summarize a bit of Tongan history, Taufa'ahau Tupou, one of three 'high chiefs', or 'Tui', in the islands at the time, essentially saw that these European powers were a force not to be fought, and so allied himself to them, adopted their religion, and then used European weapons to conquer the other two high chiefs (as well as a number of other lesser notables). He then remade Tonga in the image of a European monarchy (the preferred form of government of the era). He became King Taufa'ahau Tupou I, and one of his ancestors is still King, Tupou VI.2 Other lesser chiefs were bought off through the creation of a nobility, and awarding of noble titles to these. Click the links and check out the photos: note how this Polynesian man is dressed in all this European frippery. This was (it is argued) the plan of Tupou I: make Tonga into a European monarchy so that the Europeans wouldn't think the Tongans were uncivilized, and so annex it. 1 It is generally believed that Europeans did not colonize Tonga, and generally had little interest in the place, because it was heavily populated (so no ‘terra nullius’ to steal), and had little of economic value to export. I should add that Europeans ‘could dominate at will’ comment is challenged a bit by reports that there was a plan by some Tongans to attack and capture Cook’s ship. Click link, and see section on ‘The Ha’apai Group of Islands’. 2 See the link for the hootenanny for his father’s (Tupou V) coronation. MY favourite photo is this one. Page 1 of 6 PAD6836 Lecture 13 It worked, in that Tonga avoided outright annexation by a European power, becoming instead a British 'protectorate' in 1900. But unfortunately the foresight of Tupou I hasn't passed through the bloodline. Recent Kings (current one possibly excepted, as he is new) have been widely seen as either corrupt, or so out of touch (he is aged) that there is no control over the corruption of his family and a number of his inner circle. Tongan government remains stuck in the middle ages, with the King still very powerful, and what little power is left over lying in the hands of the nobles. The commoners (they use these terms: nobles and commoners) are all but powerless, and increasingly disenchanted. Culture Administrative culture. The article of mine that I’ve invited you to read seeks to make the point that, first, there is a cultural element to administration, as well. Attitudes to government. We’ve also seen this with reference to Figure 3 in our week one, reproduced as Figure 1 below Figure 1 – North American political parties One dimension BQ Green NDP Lib CPC Dem Rep The general idea is that we Americans tend to be more ‘conservative’, with this interpreted fairly narrowly as favouring a relatively small government safety net, and relatively little regulation of business. Epistemic nationalism. As the article of mine that you were invited to read points out, countries can have a stubborn reluctance to learn from others. This, by the way, is something that we Americans certainly share (see this). Cultural imperialism. While we Americans worry about economic nationalism, as global consumers often opt for less expensive labour than that available in the US, much of the rest of the world worries about cultural globalization, especially ‘American cultural imperialism’ (for two serviceable examples, see this, and this). Cultural imperialism? The idea behind ‘cultural imperialism’ is that one culture dominates another. Doesn’t sound too unusual, as this has been part of the interplay of cultures throughout human history. But some observers imply that this has been a conscious effort, with the US government trying to ‘Americanize’ the world. Globalization ≠ cultural imperialism. Globalization does not mean that cultural homogenization will take place, least of all on the American model. American culture? First there is no 'American' culture. Among other things American conservatives in 'the heartland' argue that 'American culture' is dominated by leftie cultural elites on the godless coasts (click for example). Global Anglophone superculture. Internationally there is certainly a global super-culture that is based largely (though by no means wholly) in the US. This largely US-based super-culture includes many non-Americans, albeit many are from English speaking countries. Much of it Page 2 of 6 PAD6836 Lecture 13 is British (The Beatles, U2, Monty Python, Hugh Grant, Sherlock Homes), Canadian (Neil Young, Michael J. Fox, Margaret Atwood), Australian (Midnight Oil, Olivia Neutron Bomb, Steve Irwin), but also French (Juliet Binoche), Spanish (Julio Iglesias), Japanese (Pokemon!), Guyanese (Eddy Grant), even Tongans have contributed to this (The Jets, their major contribution to global culture: Crush on You). Others are of indeterminate, truly global origin: Sri Lankan born Canadian Michael Ondatje, for instance, or the South African influences in Paul Simon's Graceland. Avoid neocolonialism: anti-globalizationistas can be seen as trying to deny others the right to make their own free choices about how to enjoy their leisure time. Just as many of we modern, young hipster North Americans reject quaint old cultural artifacts like square dances and find classical music to be a bore; so Javanese youths may have tired of the charms of Javanese puppet plays, young Fijians may prefer a bar to the kava circle, and young Tuvans might prefer Brazilian Jorge Ben to Tuvan throat singing. Vibrant cultures thrive. Further, there is great evidence of the existence of vibrant cultures even after close contact with 'the global super-culture'. Australia, Canada and Brazil, for instance, have vibrant, self-contained national popular cultures about which Americans know nothing. In Canada, as perhaps the best example given its proximity to the US, Tim Horton's coffee is a local icon, started by and named after a former hockey player (of course). For clothing, my choice for haute couture is Mark's Work Wearhouse, which also sells Stanfield's underwear (although disturbingly, I stopped in at a Mark's Work Wearhouse in December 2006, on my way back from a short trip to Vermont, and had a hard time finding Canadian made goods!). The Bay is the successor to the Hudson's Bay Company, of fur trading and exploration fame. For general gee gaws Canadian Tire (a hardware cum sporting goods store cum five and dime) can't be beat, and Zeller's is the local champion, fighting off the dreaded imperialists Wal Mart, for the discount department store market. I could go on, the point is that the country has a large number of shops that are as iconic in Canada as Fruit of the Loom, Dunkin Donuts and such are in the US. The picture isn't all rosy, as I believe The Bay is in trouble, while Eaton's, another iconic, more upmarket retailer recent went bankrupt. But the point here is that the Canadian and US economies are very similar in terms of material standard of living, but there are numerous cultural differences, and so homogenization is not inevitable. Québec! Within Canada the existence of a robust French speaking culture in Quebec, nearly 250 years after le conquete, also belies fears of the inevitability of cultural homogenization. My favourite example of the uniqueness of Quebecois popular culture is la Fureur (click for an example), which to the best of my knowledge makes absolutely no sense, and demonstrates that fun inanity is no special preserve of 'the global super-culture'. Australia. One word: Vegemite. But then, American cultural imperialism rears its head. Outliers Despite the comments above, all is certainly not hunky dory in terms of center-periphery relations. Fears of rich world exploitation of poor countries notwithstanding, the issue I’d like to focus on here was described by Fernando Henrique Cardoso as: "Therefore, we all are no longer talking about the South that was on the periphery of the capitalist core and was tied to it in a classical relationship of dependence. Nor are we Page 3 of 6 PAD6836 Lecture 13 speaking of the phenomenon, described some twenty-five years ago by Enzo Faletto and myself in our book Dependency and Development in Latin America, whereby multinational companies transfer parts of the productive system and the local producers are tied to foreign capital in the 'dependant-associated' development model.

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