A World of Three Cultures: Honor,Achievement and Joy

What are the intersections between values and cultures and between values, cultures, and the development of nations? How do values and cultures shape the life of nations over time? A World of Three Cultures: Honor, Achievement and Joy strives to comprehend the progress, decline, and stagnation of countries and regions across history. Miguel Basáñez approaches this topic from the standpoint of his “three value axes model” and corresponding cultural geographies/clusters: honor, achievement, and joy.

For Basáñez, cultures of honor, achievement, and joy are the foundations of individuals’ and communities’ primary motives and are linked to the political, the economic, and the social, respectively. These three cultures are fundamental for an in-depth understanding of “cultural contrasts” (p. 2) and have significant implications for the development trajectories of nations. The main sources of inspiration for the author include Alexis de Tocqueville, Max Weber, Glen Dealy, Geert Hofstede, Shalom Schwartz, and Ronald Inglehart; and he uses quantitative data from the World Values Survey, the World Bank, the Freedom House Index, and his personal experiences. The axiological cube of “trust-distrust, work as prize or punishment, and autonomy-obedience” is the theoretical and conceptual foundation of the book. Basáñez views the “axiological cube” as a promising analytical model to enhance understanding of the extent to which culture and values shape or influence the progress of individuals and nations.

Defined by Basáñez as “shared system[s] of meanings” (p. 252), cultures are the backbones of values. Values are “building blocks of culture” and constitute the foundation of a country’s development. For Basáñez, the extraordinary Babel of cultures characterizing our world can be grouped for analytical purposes into three cultural axes: honor, achievement, and joy. The book provides a snapshot of the meanings and evolution and the historical, geographical, demographic, judicial, and religious contexts of these cultures. The cultures of honor have been occurring since ancient times, whereas the cultures of achievement and joy are coterminous with the Industrial Revolution, especially in Protestant Europe and the British Empire, and the aftermath of the Second World War, respectively.

Basáñez argues that honor, achievement, and joy are correlated with distinct geographical, judicial, and religious realities: honor (African, Islamic, and Orthodox countries); achievement (Confucianism, Jews, and Protestant countries), and joy (colonial Catholics). This spatial representation of the political, economic, and social or cultural geographies or cartography of values and cultures enables grasping the regional profiles and the historical and contemporary trajectories of the culture of honor and achievement. The culture of joy, in Basáñez’s viewpoint, is situated between the culture of honor and the culture of achievement. Prevailing in postmaterialist countries and ancient colonial Catholic and Buddhist countries, the culture of joy also is embodied by the elites who are its standard-bearers throughout the world.

The strengths and weaknesses of the three cultures are examined in depth in the book. “Punctuality, productivity, use of time, dissent, autonomy, independence, agency, strong learners, work as a prize, study oriented” (p. 25)—these features characterize the strength of the cultures of achievement. The weaknesses of the cultures of achievement are “time obsessed, fast living, guilt obsessed, family distant, enjoyment and socially impaired” (p. 25). The strengths of the cultures of honor are “time relaxed, relaxed living, family close, enjoyment virtuosi, and socially oriented” (p. 25). The weaknesses of the cultures of honor are the following: “no sense of timing, unpunctual, unproductive, no innovation, dependent, no agency, learning adverse, obedient, work as punishment, study adverse” (pp. 25–26). The cultures of joy combine the strengths and weaknesses of the cultures of achievement and the cultures of honor. The joy is associated with various significations: “work hard, play hard” (cultures of achievement), a “contemplative joy” (cultures of honor), and a “carefree type of joy” (cultures of joy) (p. 26).

According to Basáñez, taking into consideration cultures and values is a vector for strengthening mutual understanding and communication, and, in an increasingly globalized world, the understanding of cultures and values is crucial in all aspects of social life, including in business and diplomacy. Realities in constant movement, cultures are neither static nor linear. The process of transformation of cultures is slow and complex and shaped by a plurality of factors, including the family, school, religion, media, leadership, and the law. Besides, a country’s judicial system can have an impact on the contribution to wealth.

The GDP is still a common referent in quantifying the economic development of countries notwithstanding its numerous shortcomings. The HDI (Human Development Index) is a significant achievement toward a better understanding of the concept of development in comparison to the GDP. However, the HDI does not adequately account for the performance of a country, as it overlooks important elements such as political performance and advances in income, gender equality, and sustainability. The shortcomings inherent to these measures prompted the Sarkozy Commission to suggest in 2008 a measure called the Objective Development Index (ODI). The ODI encompasses the HDI-related indicators and “gender equality, civil liberties and political rights, and income equality” (p. 218). While the ODI can contribute significantly to a comprehensive understanding of development, its overlooking of sustainability remains one of its major shortcomings. Basáñez suggests a measurement called the “Subjective Development Index,” based on soft data (i.e., data from the World Values Survey), to complement HDI and ODI measurements based on hard data.

Development should not be reduced solely to the economic perspective and quantifiable material assets. A complex process, development is “cyclical and full of material limits” (p. 24) and stems from three fundamental dimensions: “material structures, intangible ideas, and their interaction” (p. 27). Basáñez warns the nations against “two extremes”: “the lack of self-confidence among some and the overabundance of arrogance among others” (p. 25). Climatic, geographic, environmental, demographic, and migratory factors can play an influential role in the development process. While material conditions are sine qua non conditions for a country’s development, ideas and cultures have a significant and undeniable power over the achievement and progress of any nation. Basáñez suggests an interactionist approach that articulates the material conditions and ideas in understanding social change, thus going beyond the false quarrel opposing the Marxists’ and Weberians’ standpoints.

This book has some shortcomings, including biases of methodological nationalism, the overlooking of transnational processes, and critics’ claims about the increasing lack of heuristic relevance of conceptualizations based on specific cultural identity in increasingly multiethnic societies. Moreover, it does not pay sufficient attention to post-development theory, globalization, or the increasing denationalization of development, the marketization and economization of cultures and values under neoliberal development, and the dark side of cultures. Despite these shortcomings, this book is a significant contribution to understanding the role of values in a country’s development and the significance of culture and geography in development processes. It provides comprehensive and fascinating insight on the cultures of honor, achievement, and joy and how these cultures translate into cultural geographies and contribute to the shaping of the development trajectories of nations and regions. Well-written and clearly organized, this book should be a must-read for those interested in sociology, development studies, cultural studies, cultural geography, and international relations.