The Idea of Political Development: From Dignity to Efficiency

Abstract

Recent work on political development fails because it does not address the fundamental questions of “developmental theory.” The questions, answered in the essay, are: What “grows” in the passage from rudimentary to “modern” polities? What is the polity in its rudimentary form? Why is advancement from the primal to the advanced form ineludible? Through what stages does it pass? What forces move it through its passage? Political development is conceived as the necessarily increasing politicalization of society through six stages; and, along with this, as the gradual transformation of ceremonial, theatrical polities into “efficient,” managerial ones.