Review
"Stephanie Lawson specializes in Fifian politics, nationalism, and ethnic relations, and her comparative discussion of these polities shows impressive breadth and depth of research. The author's endnotes are extensive, and her bibliography is comprehensive....The issue at hand is not only important to Pacific scholars but also relevant to many other post-colonial societies, and Lawson's well-documented arguments should inform a wide range of historians." David A. Chappell, Historian
"This book contributes to a number of contemporary debates....It is therefore a timely and significant book. Each country is treated in great detail and current political developements are put in their historical context. This provides a useful reference book for students of contemporary Pacific isalnd politics. But this is also a provocative book....There are many imponderables thrown up by this book, which is perhaps one of its most provocative and important aspects....Lawson's book will be an essential part of this debate." H-Net Reviews
"Lawson argues her case well, and her analyses are clear, concise, and well presented. The volume is a valuable contribution to the study of Pacific island societies and provides a useful guide for the analysis of contemporary politics elsewhere." Robert C. Kiste, American Anthropologist
"One of the strengths of Lawson's analysis is that she both sets up an accessible theoretical discussion about tradition, modernity, authenticity, democracy, and offers concrete and comparative case studies of Fiji, Tonga and Samoa....This is refreshing scholarship that should make for lively ongoing debate." K.R.Howe, American Historical Review
Book Description
This study analyzes the ways in which political elites use the idea of "tradition" to legitimize certain practices and institutions. Within this framework, case studies focus on constitutional development and the chiefly power in Fiji, the monarchy and the Pro-Democracy Movement in Tonga, and the political issues surrounding the move to universal suffrage in Western Samoa. The book provides a critical approach to the political implications of romanticizing non-Western cultural traditions, especially in terms of democratic development.
Tradition versus Democracy in the South Pacific: Fiji, Tonga and Western Samoa FROM THE PUBLISHER
Much recent literature on non-Western countries celebrates the renaissance of indigenous culture, Tradition Versus Democracy in the South Pacific, however, looks more critically at Fiji, Tonga and Western Samoa, showing how current movements to reclaim and celebrate 'tradition' may protect the power and privileges of indigenous elites and promote political conservatism. Stephanie Lawson argues that opposition to 'Western' democracy in the name of 'tradition' is not necessarily representative of indigenous people at the grassroots level, and is often carefully manipulated to benefit an elite. Lawson is critical of cultural relativism, a concept which, she suggests, limits the discussion of democracy in non-Western countries and leads to deterministic stereotypes. Relativism can also reinscribe an essentialist framework, creating an ethical void in which little of critical value can be said. She is equally skeptical, however, of universalist positions which seek to promote a single, fixed conception of democratic politics and which can be as dogmatic in assumption as relativist modes of theorizing.
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