chapter 22

All across the world efforts to crate political order had to contend with a set of common conditions. Populations were exploding and expectations for independence ran very high often exceeding the available resources. Many developing countries were culturally very diverse with a little loyalty to the central state. Nonetheless public employment mushroomed as the state assumed greater responsibility for economic development. In some conditions of widespread poverty and weak private economies groups and individuals sought to capture the state or part of it both for the salaries and status it offered and for the opportunities for private enrichment that public office provide. This was for setting in which developing countries had to hammer out the new political system. 

As conical rule drew to a close European authorities in many places attempted to transplant democratic institutions to colonies they had long governed with such a have and authoritarian hand. They established legislatures, permitted elections allowed political parties to operate and in general anticipated the development of constitutional parliamentary similar to there own. It was in India that such a policy system established its deepest roots. There Western style democracy including regular elections multiple parties and peaceful changes in the government has been practice almost continuously since independence. But the struggle for independence in India had been a prolonged affair thus providing time for an Indian political leadership to sort itself out. The British began to hand over power in a gradual way well before complete independence was granted in 1947. A large number of Indians had useful administrative to technical skills than was the case elsewhere. 

Elsewhere in the colonial world democracy proved a far more fragile transplant. Among the new state of Africa for example a few retained their democratic institutions beyond the initial post independence decade. Many of the apparently popular political parties that had led the struggle for independence lost mass support and were swept away by military.