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Images of the United States and the Soviet Union Held by Jamaican Elite Groups*

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  18 July 2011

Wendell Bell
Wendell Bell
Affiliation:
University of California, Los Angeles.
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Extract

Reflecting the general concern about international relations felt in this country, social scientists have written a great deal recently about the images of Americans and of the United States which are held by foreigners. It is generally agreed that the attitudes of foreigners toward us are important factors in the success or failure of American foreign policy in the struggle against the threat of world communism. The quantity of material which is now available is drawn from diverse sources, including the informed judgments of experts, content analyses of newspapers, opinions of foreigners who are studying in the United States, polls of students and of the general populations of foreign countries, and interviews with political and other leaders in various countries.

Type
Research Article
Information
World Politics , Volume 12 , Issue 2 , January 1960 , pp. 225 - 248
Copyright
Copyright © Trustees of Princeton University 1960

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References

1 For example, see Beals, Ralph L., “The Mexican Student Views the United States,” Annals of the American Academy of Political and Social Science, Vol. 295 (September 1954), pp. 108–15CrossRefGoogle Scholar; Buchanan, William and Cantril, Hadley et al., How Nations See Each Other, Urbana, Ill., 1953Google Scholar; Castleberry, H. Paul, “The Arabs’ View of Postwar American Foreign Policy,” Western Political Science Quarterly, XII (March 1959), pp. 9–36CrossRefGoogle Scholar; Lerner, Daniel, The Passing of Traditional Society, Glencoe, Ill., 1958Google Scholar, especially ch. X, pp. 353–97; Sewell, William H., Morris, Richard T., and Davidsen, Oluf M., “Scandinavian Students' Images of the United States: A Study in Cross-cultural Education,” Annals, loc. cit., pp. 126–35Google Scholar; Washington, S. Walter, “A Study of the Causes of Hostility Toward the United States in Latin America: Brazil,” Department of State: External Research Paper No. 126, February 24, 1956Google Scholar; see also Washington's reports on Chile and Argentina, External Research Papers Nos. 126.1 and 126.2, respectively.

2 Lasswell, Harold D., Lerner, Daniel, and Rothwell, C. Easton, The Comparative Study of Elites, Stanford, Calif., 1952.Google Scholar

3 Shannon, Lyle W., ed., Underdeveloped Areas, New York, 1957, p. 11.Google Scholar

4 Cover, W. A., The Handbook, of Jamaica, Kingston, Jamaica, Government Printing Office, 1957Google Scholar; and Roberts, George W., The Population of Jamaica, Cambridge, Eng., 1957, p. 29.Google Scholar

5 Roberts, op.cit.; and The Economic Development of Jamaica, Report by a Mission of the International Bank for Reconstruction and Development, Baltimore, Md., 1952.

6 Neita, Clifton, ed., Who's Who, Jamaica, 1957, Kingston, Jamaica, 1957.Google Scholar

7 A detailed discussion of the probable biases in the sample of returned question naires and an empirical comparison of the sample with the universe from which it was drawn with respect to selected social characteristics will be available in a meth odological appendix in Wendell Bell, Jamaican Elites: A Study of Political Change, Leadership, and Social Mobility, forthcoming research monograph.

8 The respondents, of course, often have more than one type of status, but in Table I each individual has been counted just once. Elected politicians and nominated officials, for example, may in fact be businessmen, teachers, ministers, doctors, or barristers the political elites. This is also true of civil servants. Members of the non-political elites are classified according to their major activity. Thus if a person is primarily a businessman, he is classified among the business elite even though he is also a solicitor. Of course, the number of overlapping elite positions is an important datum in its own right and is subjected to analysis in work which is now in progress.

9 Since a respondent may give more than one reason, the total of the percentages may exceed ioo per cent. However, each reason given by the respondents was classified just once.

10 Lewis, Gordon K., ‘The U.S. and the Americas: How Not to Make Friends,” Sunday Gleaner (Kingston), May 25, 1958, p. 10.Google Scholar

11 Encyclopaedia Britannica, Inc., Book of the Year, 1959, p. 418.Google Scholar

12 Daily Gleaner, October 7, 1958. Jamaica receives relatively little in the way of grants and loans from the United States. During the 1957 fiscal year the United States gave the entire West Indies Federation only $1,290,000, compared with $316,257,000 for Korea, $99,243,000 for Taiwan, $18,466,000 for Japan, $17,039,000 for Brazil, $8,873,000 for Hungary, and $4,503,000 for Haiti, to mention but a few examples. See U.S. Department of Commerce, Office of Business Economics, Foreign Grants and Credits by the United States Government, June 1958 Quarter.

13 It should be borne in mind that the “least favorable” attitudes for any sub-group which are discussed here are relative to the attitudes of other sub-groups, and that in no case does the percentage of elite respondents favoring the United States fall below 55 per cent. Thus, the majority of persons in every sub-group still feels that the USA has been morally right more often than the USSR.

14 Carson McGuire, “Social Status, Peer Status, and Social Mobility,” a mimeographed memorandum for research workers based upon procedures used in studies for the Committee on Human Development, University of Chicago, Chicago, Ill. 1948.

15 The differential character of the PNP when compared with the JLP may account for this difference. The PNP is more likely than the JLP to appeal to the younger person, the highly educated person, and the salaried professional rather than the businessman. Such persons are likely to be friendly to but critical of many policies of the United States. Also, the ideology of the PNP reflects “progressivism,” which will be discussed below. This is not to suggest that the PNP is Communistic. It is not. In Jamaica there are very few known Communists, but they are not persecuted. Generally, mey exercise their rights like other citizens without fear or prejudice. Nevertheless in 1952 the PNP removed from its ranks a leftist group which had achieved considerable power in the party.

16 Where the number of cases permitted, education was introduced as a test variable between each of the other independent variables and attitudes toward the USA. In all cases except one, the relationships remained about the same. In the case of income, it was found that among poorly educated respondents high incomes resulted in more favorable attitudes toward the USA, but among the better-educated respondents high incomes resulted in less favorable attitudes toward the USAM.

17 The development of the PNP in Jamaica appears to be an ideal case of Lucian Pye's generalization that political parties in non-Western societies tend to take on a world view and represent a way of life. The PNP has been much more preoccupied with national sovereignty than has the JLP, and has developed further toward being a genuine social movement. Pye, Lucian W., “The Non-Western Political Process,” Journal of Politics, XX (August 1958), pp. 468–86.CrossRefGoogle Scholar A description of the membership and ideology of the PNP appears in Bradley, C. Paul, “Mass Parties in Jamaica: Structure and Organization,” unpublished paper, Flint College, University of Michigan, Flint, Mich.Google Scholar