Democracy in a Traditional Society: Two Hypotheses on Role

Abstract

Over the last twenty years a democratic political system has been introduced into the Micronesian Islands of the U.S. Trust Territory of the Pacific. This article reports on two hypotheses concerning sociopolitical change tested on the island of Ponape in the Trust Territory. The first hypothesis considers the possible difference in the rate of acceptance between new leadership roles with traditional counterparts and those with no such counterparts. The second hypothesis deals with the influence of traditional social status on the enactment of newly introduced leadership roles. It is suggested that the factors influencing the rate of change in the political system will also be operative in other modernization processes, such as economic development.