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305 Annals Am. Acad. Pol. & Soc. Sci. vii (1956)

handle is hein.cow/anamacp0305 and id is 1 raw text is: FOREWORD At the present juncture in international affairs the problems raised by the eco- nomic advancement of the so-called underdeveloped countries have assumed excep- tional importance. In the last ten years these problems have been made the subject of a multitude of inquiries and studies, but in most instances the pressing immediate needs of populations whose livelihood had been impaired by war or some other catastrophe, or the longer-run perspectives of narrow economic planning, have been the chief concern of these studies. As a result relatively little knowledge has been gathered about the noneconomic aspects of technical change, and the scientific study of cultural and social conditions in underdeveloped countries has also re- mained behind the concern with practical matters. Moreover, to the extent to which knowledge of the social implications of technical change has become avail- able, it was gathered to a large extent from historical and sociological studies of more highly developed countries with Western culture and institutions. Yet in view of the different cultures and over-all social conditions in underdeveloped coun- tries, studies of social and political movements and adjustments of social relations to the new forms of economic activity are likely to lead to different results if the peculiarities of these countries are taken into account. Two examples of how profound these differences may be must suffice. Whereas all Western countries, at the beginning of their process of industrialization, showed moderate population densities and were thus able to absorb rapidly growing popula- tions without great dislocations, population densities in countries such as India, Eastern Pakistan, Java, and Egypt are among the highest in the world, and it is difficult to see how very much larger populations can be absorbed in these countries without serious and far-reaching social and economic disorganization. In the second place, the economic growth of some Western countries, among them the United States, was inaugurated under the general value system derived from Puritan and Presbyterian religious doctrines; the values of Asian peoples are derived from Islam or Buddhism, religions whose view of salvation and the good life differ profoundly from those of Calvinism. The subsequent articles are designed to present some rather general and some more specific conclusions derived from a study of social conditions and consequences of technological modernization in underdeveloped countries. The contents are divided in two main portions. The first nine essays are concerned with some of the general social consequences and conditions of economic advancement in under- developed countries. They center on problems of population growth and urbaniza- tion, political movements and administrative institutions, entrepreneurship, labor conditions and standards of consumption, and on the general changes in value structures in society. To the extent to which they describe situations in certain countries, these descriptions serve primarily as examples of the more general propo- sitions developed by the authors of these papers. The last six articles in this work apply the general principles and the general knowledge of social consequences of technical change to a series of particular coun- tries. These countries were chosen so as to have a representative sample from each major region of the underdeveloped world. Japan; West Africa; Jamaica, a Carib- bean island; Egypt, a Middle Eastern Moslem country; Ceylon, a South Asian vii

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