THE TENDENCY for conflict between borrowed political systems
and indigenous social structures has been one of the most com-
plex and fascinating problems confronting the emerging socie-
ties of the twentieth century. For most of these new nations, polit-
ical modernization at certain stages has involved a substantial
degree of "Westernization." Political values and institutions
conceived and developed in the West have been discovered and
subsequently championed by avant-garde elements throughout
the non-Western world. In many cases, indeed, these values and
institutions have at some point become the embodiment of
Truth, an essential part of the inevitable wave of the future, and
hence articles of faith.

It was not always thus, and it does not remain invariably so.
The first response toward Westernism by those elites represent-
ing the high cultures of traditional Asia was essentially one of
rejection. The extensively developed, strongly self-sufficient, and
basically closed nature of such societies produced deep feelings
of cultural and racial superiority and an intense xenophobia.
The trials and tribulations of prolonged contact with the West,

-v-