Book Review: Village and Family Life in Contemporary China

• Author: Morton H. Fried
• DOI: http://doi.org/10.1177/106591297903200235
• Published date: 01 June 1979
• Date: 01 June 1979
• Subject Matter: Book Review

246

Western Political Quarterly

Although conducted before the Emergency, the study offers an encouraging prog-

nosis on the democratic prospect for India.

The study is based on two national surveys, conducted in ten languages, im-

mediately after the 1967 and 1971 elections. The two sets of data are compared

in terms

of

three basic aspects

of

political development: mass political culture,

political participation, and party identification. The Indian data arc compared

with patterns

of

mass political behavior in the United States and in other nations

for which similar data are available.

On the basis

of

their data, the authors offer

a

model of the Indian political

system:

As

a

result of exposure to leaders and to neiv political institutions, notably

political parties, the Indian public has become increasingly participant. They vote

in larger numbers and have assumed other forms of political activity. They have

acquired an interest in politics. and knowledge about the issues, candidates, and

processes. These patterns compare favorably with those in the westem democracies.

Participation has fostered an identification with parties and an acceptance of

system

goals.

Over time, citizen involvement in politics has penetrated the rural

and social periphery. People

of

the lower castes, the untouchables, the illiterates,

and the poor more generally are becoming increasingly participant. By 1975, the

authors argue, Indians at

all

levels of society had become actively involved in the

political process. And, as Myron JVeiner and John

0.

Field

also

found in their

analysis of electoral data, differences between urban and rural India are not great.

TVhat

is

revealed is

“a

remarkable homogeneity in political development.” Neither

is there

a

radical distinction between “traditional” and “modern” political cultures.

The

authors conclude that

“a

neiv political culture has emerged which is

a

fusion

of

‘traditional’ orientations and valucs and more reecnt ‘modernizing’ orientations

and

values.”

In the patterns of participation revealed by the survey,

as

Eldersveld and

Ahmed recognize, there is

a

disturbing contradiction. The data reveal that despite

relatively high levels

of

political participation, there

is

a

low

level of personal effi-

cacy among Indian citizens. Most Indians feel “pessimistic about their capacity

as

individuals to be effective in [the] system.” Yet the authors find that “political

involvement despite alienation eventually leads to commitment and support.”

Alienation declined somewhat from 1967

to

1971, “but from

40

to

60

percent of the

sample was inclined to be doubtful about their capacity to have

a

say

or

about the

responsiveness

of

officials,

or

both.” The “political participation despite alienation”

syndrome is recurrent throughout the book, but is never fully confronted nor ade-

quately explained.

For anyone interested in Indian politics, this book will be “required” reading,

but its comparative perspective does more than illuminate Indian data. It should

be equally instructive to those concerned with political participation in the United

States and JVestern Europe. Especially valuable is its overall conceptual approach,

the specification of levels and contexts of political involvement, and its design for

the analysis

of

politic21 participation.

Many questions remain unanswered, and the debate over the prospect for

democracy in India will surely continue. But

Citizens and Politics

makes

a

signifi-

cant contribution to that discussion. Eldersveld and Ahmed conclude that despite

poverty and illiteracy, Indian citizens have increasingly participated in political

life. In participation, they have learned the meaning

of

democracy and have be-

come committed to it. “This, indeed, is the great lesson

of

modem India.”

ROBERT

L.

HARDGRAVE,

JR.

University

of

Texas

at Austin

T’illage and Family Life

in

Contemporary China.

By

JVILLIAN

L.

PARISH

and

MAR-

TIN

KING

WHYTE.

(Chicago: Univcrsity of Chicago Press, 1978. Pp. xiii, 419.

$23.00.)

These are exciting days for scholars specializing in the study of China. There

is

a

new Chinese Academy of Social Science and now that recognition

has

come,

cultural exchanges are being increased and liberalized. Several American social