Western world

The "Western world", also known as the West, is a loaded concept derived from the ideologies and cultural histories of highly developed capitalist states, especially but not exclusively in Europe. In the hands of different authors, the concept may narrowly include countries where Western Christianity is prevalent or where European natives and settlers live, or can be so broad as to include Japan, South Korea, and Singapore. In fact, leftists use both definitions, but may also use the term imperialist or "Western-aligned" to distinguish the looser definition. These disagreements about which countries count as "Western" betray the concept's true nature as a reflection of capitalist development as it spreads unevenly across the globe, bringing its superstructure with it. The most important elements of this

Because the term refers to a state of development and not to any one cultural tradition, "Western culture" is itself a nebulous concept which has shifted as capitalism itself has changed. Those who make use of the concept are themselves often blind to this fact, unable to decide whether or not to include US-aligned East Asian states, or to exclude Cuba, as they are torn between "Western values" (liberalism and liberal democracy) and "Western culture" (Christianity, Greek philosophical thought, and Roman cultural heritage). These ambiguous states are typically called westernized, an apt term which reflects their striking mass cultural, political, media-sphere, and societal convergence with older Western states and most of all with the United States.

On their own, philosophic and historic connections to Europe are not enough to be called Western. Japan has only been in open contact with European culture since the 1860s and has become Westernized in the short span since, while historic cousins of Europe, such as Iran, Syria, and Turkey, have yet to be invited to the club. In short, the term is a regrettable ambiguity which has no clear alternative among leftists or otherwise.

History

Waves of capitalist development

Main article: History of capitalism

*This section is a very rough WIP and may end up included in the lead section. But feel free to add or tweak it.*

1.Britain, France, Netherlands, United States

The four bourgeois revolutions. These states would, in their own ways, spread European culture throughout the globe in the form of a complex of Christian evangelism, international trade, and force. These states have never fallen out of the Western category.

2.Germany, Japan, United States?

Germany continued to be treated as non-Western and uncivilized until the end of the First World War as a result of its late development of capitalism. This provides a clear example of how timing of development affects Western-ness.

The industrial development of the US decades after its bourgeois revolution makes it difficult to fit neatly. Regardless, white settler colonies, especially Anglophone ones, are universally considered Western. This is likely a cultural and racial distinction but also reflects their universal status as developed, US-aligned, and imperialist.

3.Spain, Italy, Russia

Treated as barbaric in the early 20th century because of their poverty and low development. After World War II, Italy was molded by the Marshall Plan (and Gladio) and Spain developed rapidly under Franco, but Russia remained "non-Western" in the form of the Red Menace. The former two, united under NATO after 1982, have been Western ever since. The Cold War thus made "the West" became a political concept on top of a cultural one.

4.South Korea, Singapore, (Hong Kong, Republic of China)

The "Four Asian Tigers". West Germany is also rebuilt during this time, not only fully Western but a stronghold of Western-ness. Japan plays a similar role.

5. Former Eastern Bloc, later including Ukraine

After their separation from Russia, these states were the subject of an unprecedented propaganda campaign to emphasize their Western-ness, now predicated on NATO membership and a newly liberalized political system. Liberal democracy, now called "Western democracy", is presented as the natural end result of a culture and value set which are inalienably Western. Two "clashes of civilizations" begin - one against the Muslim world, and another against historically Orthodox countries which are aligned with Russia. Samuel P. Huntington thus draws his line directly along the Poland-Belarus border. Years later, the Ukraine will become a new frontier in this war, suddenly thrusting the medieval Christian Kievan Rus' into the spotlight.

5.China

The overlap between Western influence and capitalist development is fully broken. A state with a culture truly foreign to Europe becomes a world power. The implications of this are yet to be realized.

See also

• Bourgeois democracy
• Liberalism
• Chauvinism

External links

• Map summary of Clash of Civilizations, a 1996 book based on a lecture delivered shortly after the events of 1991, which was a reference point for this article. It belongs on this page when image upload becomes available.