Affiliation:
1. East Tennessee State University
Abstract
The Iberian tradition-values introduced into many nations by Spain and Portugal-has endured. The values of patrimonialism, scholasticism, corporatism, orthodoxy, and mercantilism have had an influence on the public administrative systems of many lands in Latin America, parts of Africa, and Asian countries wherever Spain and Portugal had colonies. The two empires were motivated by many and conflicting objectives. Differences between the two systems are explainable in terms of timing, focus, and resources. The legacy is assessed in terms of several recent theories about the nature of political development