Hi.
I was wondering about this. It is often assumed that "democracy" and "human rights" as conceived are better for every country everywhere. But could that fail to take into account the fact that cultures differ from place to place. I have heard that the concepts of democracy and human rights in their present form are significantly based on specifically Western cultural concepts. One example of this is "individualism" -- and it seems many world cultures are not individualist. As a result, attempting to apply such norms to such cultures may smack of imperialism, Western triumphalism and procrusteanism. Is
Could this be a problem? That is, that these are rooted in Western concepts -- could there potentially be a pre-judgment that non-Western concepts are somehow inferior (hence why I said "smacks of imperialism, ...")? And that this may lead to injustice? For example, in a book titled "Human Rights: A Political and Cultural Critique" by Makau Mutua, it was said that "In the case of South Africa, the democratic, rule-of-law, rights-based state has ironically turned out to be an instrument for the preservation of the privileges and the ill-gotten gains of the white minority". That's obviously bad as it means a few benefit while many others are harmed. Now I haven't done extensive research into the history of South Africa to know if that statement is really true, but if it is, then perhaps it should give us some pause when considering the correct approach to human rights and perhaps the human rights project would need to start taking in additional perspectives, to move it from a "Western"-centric model to a model informed by a more comprehensive perspective, and perhaps also to a more flexible model that could be applied in different cultural circumstances. White privilege is not justice and white Europeans are not the savior of the world, just one group among many who happened to acquire a lot of wealth and power and ended up dominating the world but also damaging many of its peoples. The Western model may have some advantages but it also may not be the whole answer.
Could it also be a problem in China -- could democracy, at least as conceived of from a purely Western pov with no Chinese input, perhaps not really be the best for China due to their culture? Perhaps maybe some form of democracy would help in China, but it might require non-Western, Chinese input into the model to figure out what it is. Demanding "American-style" democracy in China may not be the best for them.
I was wondering about this. It is often assumed that "democracy" and "human rights" as conceived are better for every country everywhere. But could that fail to take into account the fact that cultures differ from place to place. I have heard that the concepts of democracy and human rights in their present form are significantly based on specifically Western cultural concepts. One example of this is "individualism" -- and it seems many world cultures are not individualist. As a result, attempting to apply such norms to such cultures may smack of imperialism, Western triumphalism and procrusteanism. Is
Could this be a problem? That is, that these are rooted in Western concepts -- could there potentially be a pre-judgment that non-Western concepts are somehow inferior (hence why I said "smacks of imperialism, ...")? And that this may lead to injustice? For example, in a book titled "Human Rights: A Political and Cultural Critique" by Makau Mutua, it was said that "In the case of South Africa, the democratic, rule-of-law, rights-based state has ironically turned out to be an instrument for the preservation of the privileges and the ill-gotten gains of the white minority". That's obviously bad as it means a few benefit while many others are harmed. Now I haven't done extensive research into the history of South Africa to know if that statement is really true, but if it is, then perhaps it should give us some pause when considering the correct approach to human rights and perhaps the human rights project would need to start taking in additional perspectives, to move it from a "Western"-centric model to a model informed by a more comprehensive perspective, and perhaps also to a more flexible model that could be applied in different cultural circumstances. White privilege is not justice and white Europeans are not the savior of the world, just one group among many who happened to acquire a lot of wealth and power and ended up dominating the world but also damaging many of its peoples. The Western model may have some advantages but it also may not be the whole answer.
Could it also be a problem in China -- could democracy, at least as conceived of from a purely Western pov with no Chinese input, perhaps not really be the best for China due to their culture? Perhaps maybe some form of democracy would help in China, but it might require non-Western, Chinese input into the model to figure out what it is. Demanding "American-style" democracy in China may not be the best for them.
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