SOME INSIGHTS FROM WESTERN SOCIAL-THEORY - INTRODUCTION

This introductory paper surveys a variety of Western analyses of the e mergence of a liberal social order, ranging from the Scottish enlighte nment, through responses to the French Revolution, and discussions of American exceptionalism, to various Central European reactions to the traumas of the interwar period, to ''dependency'' theory and Christian Democracy. It identifies a number of central issues that are reappear ing, in somewhat modified form, in the analysis of contemporary econom ic liberalization and political democratization issues in the South an d East. Contrary to some recent triumphalism, most Western social theo ry has been deeply preoccupied with the fragility and reversibility of economic cum political liberalization processes.