Today, we are bombarded with calls for change, as if all change was an improvement over the status quo. Dr. Gastil challenges this view in a thorough examination of concepts of change and progress. He asserts that our cultural world is divided between those who believe in one version of the 19th-century vision of progress, and those who see progress as a failed concept--either because they view change as regressive or believe that all values are relative.

Gastil insists that we need to overcome this cleavage by developing an analysis that incorporates the widest variety of positions on the subject. Until we do, it will be impossible to make any sense of policy debate. To reconstruct the debate, the author believes the first requirement is one or more proper definitions of progress so that we can better understand which meaning is being addressed. Then we need to construct a broad, humanistic basis or framework that incorporates values identified with utility, justice, achievement, and reverence. After proposing definitions and a framework for analysis, Gastil considers cultural change across a wide variety of fields, including art and literature, violence, political organizations, and the significance of human life. In doing so, he provides a stimulating volume of value to all concerned with economic, social, cultural, and political development or change.

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This yearbook marks the fourteenth year of the Comparative Survey of Freedom and is the ninth edition in the Freedom House series of annual publications. In addition to the ratings and tables produced by the Survey, the discussion of criteria and definitions at the beginning of the 1986-87 yearbook again includes the checklist of political rights and civil liberties. Discussion of communication policies of the United States and the Soviet Union forms a special theme in this year's summary of the international struggle for free and informative news media.