A reply from Joseph LaPalombara on complex theorem of Development

Dear Mr. Tofa,

Robert Putnam, an eminent scholar for whom I have enormous respect, was actually a Ph.D. student who took his degree decades ago under my supervision. The question you raise regarding his work is quite different from the question about conditions under which a nation-state’s development might proceed.  Putnam’s formulations as to the role of “social credit” in the type of functioning one finds in democratic systems is a complex matter, regarding which some of us have reservations, at least for two reasons.  One of these involves how one goes about empirically measuring the concept itself.  The other is the equally and perhaps even more challenging task of showing how different levels of this trait might relate to democracy.

In the piece of mine you mention, the first thing to note is that I was then trying to show an enormous Western bias, of the kind that seemed to suggest that some sort of “democracy” was more likely than, say, the lack of it or central economic planning, more suited to “development,”  Actually the problem here was the widespread and unfortunate assumption that “development” really meant that a society was moving in the direction of emulating Western, more or less democratic systems.  This was at that time unfortunate nonsense.

Development is a complex process the process and progress of which must be kept analytically separated from ideological issues regarding “democracy,” “centralized economic planning as opposed to free markets,” etc.  In this process, bureaucratic organizations, their structure and their capacity, are critically important factors, and the quality of the “human capital” one finds in this sector is immensely more important than whether the political system is more or less democratic, more or less endowed with “social credit.”  The quintessential example would be to compare, say, China and Nigeria, or Brazil and India, etc.

I hope this helps.

Joseph LaPalombara

Arnold Wolfers Professor Emeritus

of Political Science & Management

Yale University

New Haven,  CT 06520