Chapter 1 The World Polity and Political Culture

Abstract

What drives this diffusion process? One neo-institutional answer to this question is that new models of nationhood, organization, and social identity exist in the larger world environment (Meyer, 2009, p. 36ff). Because they are external, these “identities” and models can be adopted without huge costs and without necessarily entailing the reorganization of society or actors’ personalities. Thus the models of modern society can spread quickly because they are relatively easy to assume and because they have high legitimacy in the international environment. Conformity produces instrumental rewards as well. And it also signals to significant “other” nations and international bodies that a nation has accepted modernity and its responsibilities (see Boli & Thomas's discussion, 1999). Thus, foreign aid, loans, and credit may flow quickly to those developing countries that enact modern institutional structures like mass education and democratic elections.

Citation

Kamens, D.H. (2012), "Chapter 1 The World Polity and Political Culture", Kamens, D.H. (Ed.) Beyond the Nation-State (Research in the Sociology of Education, Vol. 18), Emerald Group Publishing Limited, Leeds, pp. 1-33. https://doi.org/10.1108/S1479-3539(2012)0000018005