26 SOCIAL SCIENTIST tional system in world politics, the crisis of imperialism at home following the social devastation of the greatest war in human history, the growing strength of nationalist movements in the colonies. Formal decolonisation, however, was accompanied by two developments which are of crucial importance—one, the politics of modern imperialism (or neocolonialism, whatever one wishes to call it), and two, the emergence of the United States as the unquestioned leader of the capitalist powers. These two developments must be borne in mind when assessing much of the recent literature in the social sciences, for the great splurge of interest of American scholars in the countries of the underdeveloped world is not unrelated to the emergence of the United States as a global power of the highest rank. Throughout the fifties and sixties, American social scientists immersed themselves in the task of unfolding the manifold mysteries of the cultures and institutions of Asian, African and Latin American countries, and a very important product of this furious academic activity is the modern theory of political development. Ill Let us confine ourselves to the results of this study. The first phase was rather short. Its fundamental conclusion was that the political development of the underdeveloped countries could only be the result of economic development—a rapid industrialisation of their productive systems and a thorough modernisation of their cultural superstructures. The most comprehensive statement of this position was made in Rostow's Stages of Economic Growth, a book very presumptuously, but nevertheless significantly, subtitled "anon-communist manifesto." The critical point in the transition from a traditional to a modern industrial society, according to Rostow, was what he called the point of "take-off." To reach "take-off," certain social prerequisites were necessary such as a relatively high level of education, a new modernising elite, a banking system, transport, commerce. In order to help achieve "take-off," the developed West must ensure the necessary external aid, financial, technological and, in parentheses, political. Once "take-off" is reached, the growing economy could presumably take care of itself, by creating and distributing the necessary wealth and by establishing and working the new institutional structures to stabilise a democratic order. Policywise, it was, therefore imperative upon the West to "demonstrate that the underdeveloped nations—now the main focus of Communist hopes—can move successfully through the preconditions into a well established take-off within the orbit of the democratic world, resisting the blandishments and temptations of Communism. This is, I believe, the most important single item on the Western agenda."3 IV This theory was short-lived. It was realised very quickly that rapid economic development, whatever its results in the long run, was