------------ EH.NET BOOK REVIEW --------------
Published by EH.NET (July 2006)
Eric L. Jones, _Cultures Merging: A Historical and Economic Critique
of Culture_. Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press, 2006. xvii +
297 pp. $30 (cloth), ISBN: 0-691-11737-3.
Reviewed for EH.NET by Avner Greif, Department of Economics, Stanford
University.
For some scholars, a society's culture determines its economic
destiny. For others, culture is malleable reflecting deeper political
and economic variables and hence is epiphenomenal to economic
outcomes. In this interesting book, Eric Jones (author of _The
European Miracle_ among other publications, a Professorial Fellow at
Melbourne Business School, University of Melbourne and an Emeritus
Professor at La Trobe) provides a useful survey of this debate and
argues for a middle ground.
Jones views culture -- patterns of beliefs, habits, values, ideals,
and preferences shared by groups of people -- as both sticky and
fluid. Because culture reflects habituation which one acquires at
young age, it is slow to change. Yet, culture is also fluid; it is
often of relatively recent vintage, changes rapidly, and is promoted,
or even created by those who stand to gain from it. Culture changes
in response to economic, political, and social forces. Cultural
change reflects better knowledge of alternative cultures and such
knowledge leads to _cultural merger_, new syntheses in languages,
religion, and other domains. Culture therefore exhibits _transient
fixity_.
Culture and the economy interrelate. A given culture influences
transaction costs and thereby economic outcomes for a while. Yet, the
economy shapes culture because it alters constraints and
opportunities and provides knowledge regarding alternative cultures.
Indeed, the rate of cultural change has accelerated in modern times
because of the decline in information cost and the global reach of
goods -- such as movies, contraceptives, and cars -- which embody
alternative cultures. Cultural change also accelerated recently
because the modern economy provides individuals with choices and
opportunities that were not available in the past. Since culture is
malleable, its impact on economic outcomes is less than often
asserted. The global economy, however, will not lead to a globally
uniform culture as it also enables new cultures to develop and
prosper. This is the case because communication and information costs
are so low in this new economy.
Culture and institutions also interrelate. The distinction between
institutions and culture, according to Jones, is that the latter is
informal, socially transmitted, and taken for granted while
institutions tend to be conscious, even political constructs. Culture
is relatively intangible while institutions have a more rule-bound
existence. Institutions can shape culture although informal culture
is difficult to alter. Jones asserts, without much elaboration, that
a growth enhancing culture must be protected by law and not man. It
seems that he means to contrast the European traditional rule of law
with some unspecified alternatives.
Following this general discussion, Jones devotes a lengthy discussion
to the important controversy in economic history regarding economic
growth in China and Europe. While the "California School" of Chinese
history claims that Europe was first to industrialize because it had
better endowments, Jones argued that institutional distinctions
mattered, particularly those influencing the use of resources,
motivating technological advances, and enabling complex contracting.
Rule of law was the most important principle. More generally, the
fragmentation of power led to diversity of institutional development
and institutionalized equalities brought peace and prosperity. "The
institutions of the West were impersonal and decentralized; its
institutional network held out the promise of extension to fresh
social groups and new societies; and ... it evinced great power of
self-correction" (p. 132).
As the discussion of institutions illustrates, Jones does not hold
all cultures to be born equal. He emphasizes that cultures are
neither chosen rationally nor selected by evolutionary forces
according to their functionality. Mediocre -- welfare reducing
practices -- can and do prevail. Yet, competition can eradicate
mediocre cultures. When alternative cultures are competing, a
materially and emotionally beneficial culture is likely to be
adopted, particularly by young adults.
The first five chapters of the book elaborate on the above point and
the following three illustrate particular points by providing
"cultural commentary." In this commentary, Jones presents evidence
the culture of immigration is uniform -- second and third generations
tend to exhibit cultural mobility and adopt the local culture while
potentially changing it in the process. He then takes issue with the
claims that "Asian culture" is underpinning the remarkable growth in
Asia, that the resentment to the Western cultural role model is more
than a reflection of deeper economic and political problems, and that
local cultural protection reflects the will of the local people
rather than interest group politics.
Regarding the debate over culture being immutable or epiphenomenal,
Jones advances an appealing and intuitively correct assertion:
culture is neither immutable nor epiphenomenal. Jones has done a
wonderful job of reviewing both sides of the debate while exposing
and articulating on the deficiency of the opposing views.
Furthermore, Jones exposes various political and economic reasons
that motivate the opposing sides to adopt the positions they do.
Among these reasons are nationalistic sentiments, the fear of
political and social elites that new culture will erode their
positions, and the desire of local cultural producers to gain from
subsidies. A novel aspect of the analysis is the emphasis on the role
of knowledge regarding cultural diversity on cultural change. This
enables Jones to link technological changes that reduce information
costs and globalization of markets with the rate and direction of
cultural change.
The book does not employ quantitative evidence. Yet, Jones draws on
an amazing array of anecdotal evidence, both historical and
contemporary, to make his point. Indeed, it is relatively easy to
knock out the two extreme positions -- that culture is either
everything or nothing -- by providing counter examples. Lacking,
however, is good evidence regarding the stronger claims made --
explicitly or implicitly -- in this work. Among these claims are that
all cultures are similarly malleable, that distinct cultures do not
differ in their endogenous dynamics, that the interrelationships
between culture and institutions cannot undermine the process of
cultural change that Jones is describing, that Western institutions
were more accommodating to cultural diversity than those of other
societies, that the cultural assimilation of immigrants is universal,
that mediocre cultures can perpetuate even in the presence of
cultural competition, etc.. (For an analysis of how culture and
institutions can mutually reinforce each other, see Greif 2006.)
Similarly unsatisfying is the multiplicity, and sometimes
contradictorily implicit models that Jones invokes in his analysis.
Only the conclusion verbally presents a model of culture and cultural
change. This is an evolutionary model of cultural development in
which information about alternatives and exogenous economic shocks
causes cultural change. Some individuals respond to new information
and exogenous shocks by altering their behavior and hence the
resulting culture. Because culture reflects historical habituation,
such change is often gradual and usually the old are more resistant
to change.
No doubt, this individualistic model captures what may indeed be a
mechanism for cultural change. Yet, central to it is that individuals
can freely choose their culture and a rejection of the importance of
culture as social phenomenon. This assertion is in contrast to the
recent empirical finding (e.g., Guiso, Sapienza, and Zingales 2006)
indicating that culture is a social phenomena. Moreover, it opposes
many chapters in the book that consider the social dimensions of
culture. These chapters argue, for example, that institutions
influence culture, that the powerful attempt to shape culture, and
that interest groups manipulate policies regarding culture. The book
does not resolve the tension between the individualistic and the
social-based models of culture. It does not, for example, elaborate
on the factors determining which model is more applicable in a
particular time and place.
These reservations notwithstanding, Jones provides an accessible,
illuminating, and inspiring book on a complex issue, while providing
thought-provoking ideas regarding where more research is warranted.
References:
Avner Greif, 2006. _Institutions and the Path to the Modern Economy:
Lessons from Medieval Trade_. Cambridge University Press, 2006.
Luigi Guiso, Paola Sapienza, and Luigi Zingales, 2006. "Does Culture
Effect Economic Outcomes?" _Journal of Economic Perspectives_ 20:
23-48.
Avner Greif teaches economic history and institutional analysis at
Stanford University. Among his recent publications are _Institutions
and the Path to the Modern Economy: Lessons from Medieval Trade_
(Cambridge University Press, 2006); "The Origin of Impersonal
Exchange: The Community Responsibility System and Impartial Justice"
(_Journal of Economic Perspective_, 2006); "Commitment, Coercion, and
Markets: The Nature and Dynamics of Institutions Supporting Exchange"
(in the _Handbook for New Institutional Economics_, edited by Claude
Menard and Mary M. Shirley, 2005); and "A Theory of Endogenous
Institutional Change" (_American Political Science Review_, 2004.)
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