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The Natural Path

The Spiral of Growth starts pragmatically with an in-group form of pluralism,

The natual path of political maturation starting from few groups benefiting in society to most groups benfiting.
  • proceeds around the more central Modes,
  • enters into a version of pluralism recognizing diverse groups,
  • then takes in the more extreme Modes,
  • until it eventually ends in a pluralism with proper recognition of most groups in society.

However, this Spiral form alone (even assuming it is correct) gives us rather little understanding. To genuinely understand this Spiral trajectory, we must be able to formulate simple lucid common-sense answers to a range of questions about it.

ClosedSome Questions

  • What do we mean by political maturation?
  • What distinctive socio-political institutions and values emerge at each Stage?
  • What distinguishes the three passages through the Pluralist Mode?
  • What enables a society to develop politically through the Modes?
  • Why does development have to be Staged?
  • Is there an alternative developmental path? If not, why not?
  • How may this analysis be applied to our own societies now?

Structural Corroboration

As well as confirmation based on the origin from ethical choice approaches, validation via structural corroboration has been provided because:

  • the Spiral clarifies how the people and those in control of power interact to generate political choice, irrespective of the stage within political maturationas developed here
  • the Levels (Stages) in the Spiral structure combine to produce a useful and illuminating representation of political activities and personal participation: as developed here.

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Originally posted: July 2009; Last updated: 27 Jan 2010