Niebuhr Speaks To Round Table

"We can't speak of democratic self-government as a simple alternative to "communism" for the non-Western world, Reinhold Niebuhr, visiting professor of theology declared yesterday.

American democracy is based upon or social conditions which are not necessarily present in a non-Western country, he told the Hillel Round Table World Affairs. Thus, "when Goldwater speaks of winning the Cold War for democracy, he is, in a sense, talking nonsense."

"We have to recognize all the programs and complexities of democracy before we talk about about winning the world," Niebuhr maintained.

Dignity of Individual

In order for democracy to be successful, Four requirements have to be met. First, democracy implies recognition "of the value and dignity of the individual." However, in many Eastern countries, the culture, is based upon family or tribal activism.

Second, ethnic and linguistic homogeneity are vital to a functioning democracy and are really the basis on which American democracy developed. But India, for example, which has recently been plagued by language riots, has many different ethnic groups, he said.

Tolerance Necessary

Third, for a democracy to remain able, religio-cultural heterogeneity "has be digested into tolerance." In India cultural plurality exists without the value of tolerance," he said. Thus, when India became free, the tension between Islam and Hinduism forced partition on the country.

The fourth and extremely important condition is that the government be compatible with the collectivist society of industrialism. Universal suffrage and tremendous concentration of economic answer are both vital to democracy in an industrialized society, Niebuhr maintained.

Thus, in any effective democracy, the middle classes must be sufficiently powerful to destroy the landed wealthy class. And the workers must be strong enough challenge the industrial might of the middle class, he insisted.