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The
Theory
of Cultural
Lag
and the
VeblenianContribution
By
WILLIAM P. GLADE
Introduction
THE INTELLECTUALFASHION of the times has decreed that in all really
learned discussions diagnosing
the ills of modern society,
there must be the
tacit underlying assumption
that no matter what specific points
the
participants may bring up
to explain
their own particularviews,
the basic
causeof all social disturbancesand upheavalsmay
be adequately
and finally
summed up
in the term,
cultural lag (or
social lag). Furthermore, there
is another tacit assumption
that no one will be called upon
to explain
seriously
the meaning
of the term; there is, as it were, a common agreement
to keep
it nebulousand vague,
a conspiracy
in restraint of clarity.
In a like manner, virtually every
book analyzing
the weightier
issues of
the day,
whether written for the Tome-of-the-Weekclub memberor for
the more serious student, pays
at least a passing
tribute to this ubiquitous
phrase.
But rarely
is there an attempt
to explain
the concept
behind the
phrase.
In common practice
the writer will reel off a list of mal-
functioning
elementsin our society
and then attribute their causeto social
lag, letting
it go
at that. It is difficult to think of a phrase
which has
been so generally
used with such abandon.
Its popularity
is not hard to understand. There is somethingdefinitely
appealing
about the idea that there are two elements or processesmoving
along
in more-or-lessthe same directionand that all of our troublesresult
from the fact that one moves at a slower speed
than the other. The
remedy
then appearseasy-all
that remainsto be done is to apply
some sort
of whip
to the slower process!
And there are as many "whips"suggested
as thereare propagandists
and other writerson the subject.
The term has even acquired
a strong
moral flavor, and consequently
we
find, of all people,"avant-garde"
churchmen preaching
aboutthe anachron-
istic elementsin our society. Occasionallythey point
to nationalismand
militarismas examples,
but beyond that, these priests
of the "devout ob-
servances" conveniently
overlook other ceremonialactivities.
This, then, is a brief survey
of cultural lag
in its popular
use or misuse.
Does the term have any
real meaning
or significance?
If so, just exactly
what is the nature of cultural lag?
What are its causes? What did
428 The American Journal of Economics and Sociology
Veblen contribute to our understanding
of it? These are some of the
questions which will be consideredin this paper.
The Meaning
of Cultural Lag
General SociologicalMeaning
To go a step
further and removesome of the ambiguity surrounding
the
term, we shall begin by inquiring
into the usual meaning
of cultural lag
for
the purpose
of later relating
this to Veblen'sconstructionof the concept.
Generallyspeaking,
cultural lag
refers to the discrepancy
betweenthe socio-
political
structure and technological advances; to put
it another way,
it
indicatesa moreretarded development
of societal arts as compared
with the
advanced stage
of technological
arts. It is commonly
held that our tech-
nology
is developing
and growing
at such a high speed
that our social
relationships,
for one reasonor another, have not been able to keep pace
in
development.
The implication is, of course, of a teleological
nature. It
assumesthat the two ought
to be "harmonized"in some fashion and that
there is some force which causesthe two to move in the same direction or
towards the same ends, albeit at different rates of speed.
It implies
also
that social development
is similar to the technologicalprocess
in that it
contains within itself elements of dynamism.
Is this true, and if so, to
what extent? Diagrammatically
this interpretationmight appear
in this
manner:
time >
socio-politico-economic
structure, societal arts,
adaptive
or non-material
actual development lag
culture
technology, science, actual development
technological arts,
material culture
The Work of Ogburn
For perhaps the most extensive and definitivediscussion of cultural lag,
we can turn to the book, Social Change, by
W. F.
Ogburn,
whose concept
of cultural lag
will be taken as the point
of departure
for this paper.
In analyzing
the materialculture or technology (in the narrow sense),
Ogburn finds that there is a sort of inherent dynamism
in the process
of
technological development,
that materialculture is accumulative, and that
the number of different kinds of material culture objects is a factor in
The American Journal of
Economics and Sociology
sistanceto change,
and the ratherdubiousreasonthat cultural forms may
be inert because of a continuing utility.
Turning
more specifically
to the phenomenon
of cultural lag, Ogburn sets
forth the problem clearly,
"The various parts
of modern culture are not
changing
at the same rate, some parts
are changing
much more rapidly
than
others; and that since there is a correlation and interdependence
of parts,
a
rapid change
in one part
of our culture requiresreadjustments through
other changes
in the variouscorrelated parts
of culture. ... 'Whereone
part
of culture changes first, through
some discovery
or invention,
and
occasions changes
in some part
of culture dependentupon it, there fre-
quently
is a delay
in the changes
occasioned in the dependent part
of
culture" (pp. 200-1). Ogburn
illustratesthis by examplesshowing, first,
changes
in the material culture and then the lag
before corresponding
changes
in the non-materialor adaptive
culture occur. "Another point
to observeis that the changes
in the materialculture precedechanges
in the
adaptive
culture. .... It may
be true that the old adaptive
culture is
never wholly adjusted
to the new conditions" (pp. 211-2).
On this
point,
Veblen was more emphatic:
"Institutions are products of the past
process,
are adapted
to past circumstances, and are thereforenever in full
accord with the requirements
of the present."
To borrowa bit from L. L. Bernard, the structureof society
or the cul-
tural complex may
be illustrated somewhat as follows:
ins tutions
I indirector derivative adjustments, rest
institutions primarily
on societal relationships
written language
spoken language
psycho-social adjustments
gesture language
bio-social physico-social st level, direct adjustments
|I
bio physico
natural environment
On the lower social levels, thereis direct, basic adjustmentby
man to his
natural environment and technological
arts (i.e.
material culture)
are
dominant, but the higher
the structure rises, the more societal arts pre-
dominate and the greater
is the uncertainty
as to the "correctness"of the
adjustment.
The higher
levels are increasingly
derivative adjustments,
and at the top,
institutions may
be consideredas abstract adjustments
to
1 Thorstein Veblen, Theory of the Leisure Class, p.
2 L. L. Bernard, An Introduction to Social Psychology, pp.
75-85.
Cultural Lag and Veblenian Contribution
previous
lower level adjustments,
the meaning
of which may
have been
largely
lost in the complex
of society.
It may
be said that the difficulties
of adjustment
to the environ#nent
in the upper levels leadsto cultural lag.
What are the reasonsfor or causesof this cultural lag? Ogburn
lists
and discussessix general
reasons (p.
ff):
Scarcity
of invention in the adaptive
culture-For example,
in the field
of government
there is a "marked lack of inventiveness." Pensions,
workmen's compensation,
and the like are examples
of what Ogburn
calls inventionsin the adaptive
culture.
- Mechanicalobstaclesto adaptivechanges-The
time it takes to propa-
gandize
new ideas and get
them adoptedby
the government.
Other
mechanicalobstaclesare habit, love of the past,
and variousutilities of
the old culture.
- The heterogeneity
of society-The need for change
in the adaptive
culture may
be felt by only
one class, whereasthe change
must be made
by society
as a whole. Vested interests and the resulting
class con-
flicts are important
in this consideration.
- The closeness of contact with material culture-The relationship
be-
tween the adaptive
culture and the materialculture is not very close,
but several steps
removed (see precedingchart).
For example,govern-
ment is fartherremovedfrom the materialculture than is the organiza-
tion of industry.
- The connection of the adaptive
culture with other parts
of culture-
If adaptive
culture x is relatedto another part
of adaptive
culture y
as
well as to material culture z, then if z changes
and y
does not change,
then x will be more slow to change
than would be true if it were not
correlatedwith y.
Group
valuations-"Customs become mores becauseof the strong ap-
proval
of them as a policy by
the group..
Thereis grouppressure
to enforce conformity. These emotionalvalues of group approvalap-
pear
to be forces resistingchange."
Since "social organization,customs, and moralsare the meansof a col-
lective way
of doing things,
in large part
to and with the naturalenviron-
ment and material culture... such methods of behavior would there-
fore presumablychange
if the material culture or natural environment
changed" (p. 271).
The presentrapidity
of material change means that
it is significant
as a cause of social phenomena.
To restate the elementsenvolvedin this problem,Ogburn
finds the fre-
quency
of change
in material culture due to the cumulative nature of in-
ventions and techniques. Some parts
of the non-material culture (re-
ligion)
have no such cumulative nature, while other parts (art, literature,
government)
are cumulative but to a lesser extent than the material
culture.
Cultural Lag
'nd Veblenian Contribution
cussion of the basic Veblenian dichotomy, technology
and ceremonialism,
which is unmistakablein all of his major
works and which runs like a
unifying
thread from the early essays
and reviews which preceded
The
Theory of
the LeisureClass through
even the translationof The Laxdaela
Saga. On one side,
the area of technology,
lie peaceablepursuits,
in-
dustrial activity,
the impersonal
and matter-of-fact point
of view, in-
dustrial capital
or the state of the industrial arts, the machine process,
and
workmanship;
the correspondingaspects
of ceremonialism may
be desig-
nated as predatory
or aggressivepursuits,pecuniaryactivity,
the animistic
point
of view, business capital,
investment for profit,
and exploitation.
Yet in spite
of the emphasis
this dichotomy
receives (one might
almost say
that it is the sum and substanceof Veblen's work),
the frequency
with
which it is overlookedand ignored by
even serious readersof Veblen is
incredible. All too often they
have been distracted by
his irony
and
literary style
and have thought
of Veblen as primarily
a social satirist.
But it is this recognition (by Veblen)
of the two distinctive aspects
of the
social complex
which furnishesthe explanation
of social lag.
Technology
is conceived as referring
to "the material interests of the
community, including
a social organizationadapted
to its exigencies,
rather
than to mere physicalprocess;
and the term techniciansmeans not merely
the engineers
of a factory,
but those intellectual leaders impersonally
con-
cernedwith these materialinterests.
Thus technology
includesnot
only
tools but also the "tool ways"
of the community,
tlh dynamic
cumu-
lative natureof the technologicalprocess,
the effect of the machine process
upon human behavior, particularly
those classes intimately
associatedwith
the machine process,
the views of modern science with its axiom of
cumulative causation and the impersonal
causal sequence.
Thus tech-
nology
in this broadsense includesnot only
material culture, but overlaps
into what has been variously designated
as non-material culture, societal
arts,
and adaptive
culture. Technology
is cumulative (see Ogburn
on the
cumulative nature of material culture)
and hence grows
or develops.
On the other hand, ceremonialismmust be analysed
in terms of status,
mores,habits,customs, rites, sacred beliefs, fetishes,force, power, coercion,
emotion, religion, mythology,
and superstition.
It is based on the "per-
sonal, animistic point
of view which belongs
to the pre-Darwin stage
of the
naturalsciences. Its ultimate axiomis an uncriticalnaturallaw which in-
scrutably
coerces the course of events, the efficient causes, to achieve the
legitimate end,
which is the ideal of conduct accepted by
the dominant
3 Joseph Dorfman, Thorstein Veblen and His America, p.
28 Vol. 11
434 The American Journal of Economics and Sociology
common sense. This preconception
of natural law, or legitimate end, has
taken variousforms-the Creator,
the unseen hand, overrulingprovidence,
a harmony
of interests, propensity
or tendency
in events, natural rights,
natural order, normal order,
a meliorativetrend in events,
a teleological
order,
final causes, uniformities of nature."4 In the social structure,
ceremonialismfinds expression
in the coercivenatureof received (and thus
"sacred") dogmas, traditions, and institutions. Whereas technological
patterns
are a simple
continuationof process,
ceremonial patterns
are back-
ward-looking,deriving
their authority
and sanction from the past
and at
the same time existing
to fulfill ultimate ends projected
into the future.
In ceremonialismthereis not to be found any developmentalprocess
similar
to that in technology.
What of the relationship
between these two aspects
of the totality
of
social structure? First of all, while technology
is constantly changing
cumulatively,
the function of ceremonialismis inherellly
static or change-
resistant. Ceremonialismadheresto the past
and does not respond
to
change
as does technology.
In so far as ceremonialismaffects technology,
it impingesupon it, impedes
its application,
and otherwiserestricts man's
use of technology
to increasehis material welfare. The effect of tech-
nology upon ceremonialism is, however, held to be of quite
a different
nature. There is, as it were, a process
of attenuationof ceremonialismwith
the advanceof technology.
"Veblen points
out that changes
in industrial
technology
result in a decay
of old-fashionedhabits of thought
basedon an
animisticor anthropomorphicinterpretation
of the externalworld. Tech-
nology
has a 'corrosivetouch' which destroys
habits of thought
basedon
romantic notions of the nature of the external world and on traditional
acceptance of differencesin human rank. Those who are in contact with
this changingtechnology
substitutefor the old-fashionedhabitsof thought
new mental habits which are supportedby matter-of-fact knowledge
of
the externalworld."6 This process
is describedat length
in Chapter
IX of
The Theory of
Business Enterprise.
The cultural incidence of the ma-
chine process
occursin the round-about process
of the growth
of enlighten-
ment, i.e. the impact
of knowledge acquiredthrough
the machine process
on received traditions. While John Gambs in BeyondSupply
and Demand
has severely
criticized Veblen regarding
the cultural incidence of the ma-
4 Ibid., p.
5 Definitive treatment of the nature of ceremonialism and technology
has been omitted
in order not to digress too far from the main topic
of the paper. Similarly,
extensive
quotation from Veblen has not been used. Rather, references will be made to the books
where certain ideas in this paper have been expounded by Veblen in great detail.
6 Allan Gruchy, Modern Economic Thought-The American Contribution, p.
436 The American Journal of
Economics and Sociology
or form of social organization permits change
or variation and tolerates
vestiges
of past
cultural patterns (culture lags),
the dominating
theme
remains the same (the Gestalt)."
The feudalism of Japan
and Germany
(a culture lag
from a previous Gestalt)
combined with the modern in-
dustrial regime
introduced into those nations resulted in "excessive in-
congruities"
in their Gestalts, the theme of Imperial Germany
and the
Industrial Revolution.
In both of these cases-the analyses
of Gruchy
and Gambs-the cultural
lag
is of a ceremonial character involving status, coercion, and related
features. As mentioned before,
the term "lag"
is somewhat of a misnomer,
and remnant or vestige
would perhaps
be more accurate. But at any
rate
it is evident that the key
to cultural lag
is that it is a case of ceremonial
persistence,
of intransigent
institutional behavior patterns.
Now with
this point clearly
in mind, we can return to the several questions
left
unanswered earlier. It will be seen that all of the problem
situations posed
there have in common the characteristic attributes of ceremonialism. For
example,
there is a "marked lack of inventiveness" in the field of govern-
ment because received forms of government
are particularly
tied up
with
status, power,
and coercion, and in the romantic point
of view, there is
traditionally
an intangible
"sacredness" of inherited governmental
institu-
tions whether this sacredness rests upon
divine right
or natural rights.
Similarly,
vested interests come to be vested through
ceremonial status
arrangements
and institutions which perpetuate
heirarchical structures.
The fact that some parts
of the non-material culture are of a non-cumula-
tive nature lies in their ceremonial character, while other parts
of the non-
material culture are cumulative because they are, at least in part,
of a
technological
character.
In conclusion, Veblen's contribution to the theory
of cultural lag
lies in
his keen analysis
of the basic dichotomy
of the social complex-technology
and ceremonialism-an analysis
which goes
far beyond the usual studies of
the phenomenon
of cultural lag
and deals with the underlying aspects
of
society.
And an almost equal
contribution of Veblen was his unparalleled
recognition
of the significance
of this concept
for the field of economics,
but that goes beyond the scope
of this paper.
University of
Texas
9
Ibid., p.
BIBLIOGRAPHY
Bernard, L. L. An Introduction to Social Psychology. Henry Holt & Co., New York,
Daugert, Stanley Matthew. The Philosophy of Thorstein Veblen. King's Crown Press,
Columbia University, New York,
Cultural Lag
and Cultural Veblenian Contribution Lag
and Veblenian Contribution 437437
Dorfman, Joseph.
Thorstein Veblen and His America. The Viking Press, New York,
Gambs, John S. Beyond Supply and Demand. Columbia University Press, New York,
Gruchy,
Allan G. Modern Economic Thought-The American Contribution. Prentice-
Hall. Inc., New York,
Veblen, Thorstein B. The Theory of
Business Enterprise.
Charles Scribner's Sons, New
York,
The Theory of the Leisure Class. The Modern Library, New York,
"Why Is Economics Not an Evolutionary Science?", The Portable Veblen.
The Viking Press, New York,
Ogburn, W. F., Social Change.
B. W. Huebsch Inc., New York, 1922.
The Blight of Bureaucracy
in State Government*
A
MAJOR
PROBLEM of government,
as well as of big business,
is to find a
way
of restoring
to competent
officialsnot only responsibility
but authority
as well. If our stateinstitutionsare to attract outstanding leadership,
New
York must regain
the crusadingspirit
that inspired
so many
of her admin-
istratorsin the past.
John
E.
Burton, former directorof the budget,
sums up
the matter in
two short sentences:
Keep the duties of administrationas much as possible in the hands of the people who
spend the money. This makes not only for efficiency,
but also for responsibility.
On May
Gov. Martin H. Glynn
called the Legislature
of the
State of New York in extraordinary
session to concentrate upon
the ques-
tion of state finances. On May
6 of that year,
HerbertF. Prescott, deputy
fiscal adviser of state charities,
made a report
to the extraordinary
session
on "Conflictof Authority
and Laws Concerning
CharitableInstitutionsof
the State." In that report
he stated in part:
The present interlocking system of department control of public institutions in the
state is expensive,confusing, and inefficient. Initiative is smotheredin a mass of red tape.
Department has been piled upon department
until the mass is top heavy
with ex-
travagance.
An army of clerks is required in state institutions to carry on correspondence with
over twenty departments,many of which would be entirely unnecessary if the system of
administrationwere put on a businessbasis.
There are today
more state departmentsassisting in running
these charitable institu-
tions than there are institutions, and their powers, duties and responsibilities are so inter-
locked that the transaction of institutional business is very slow and very expensive
(Assembly Document No. 2, May 6, 1914).
Our state government
has been completely reorganized
since
Today
we cannot possibly
have more state departmentssupervising
the
fifty-eight
institutions than there are institutionsto supervise,
becausethere
are now only
nineteen departments.
Thanks largely
to formerGov. Alfred
E. Smithand former Gov. CharlesEvans Hughes,
who headedthe executive
committee appointedby
the State Reorganization
Commissionin 1926,
the
From the 42d annual report of the board of visitors of Letchworth Village, Utica,
N. Y., State Hospitals Press, 1951, pp. 116-19.
Dorfman, Joseph.
Thorstein Veblen and His America. The Viking Press, New York,
Gambs, John S. Beyond Supply and Demand. Columbia University Press, New York,
Gruchy,
Allan G. Modern Economic Thought-The American Contribution. Prentice-
Hall. Inc., New York,
Veblen, Thorstein B. The Theory of
Business Enterprise.
Charles Scribner's Sons, New
York,
The Theory of the Leisure Class. The Modern Library, New York,
"Why Is Economics Not an Evolutionary Science?", The Portable Veblen.
The Viking Press, New York,
Ogburn, W. F., Social Change.
B. W. Huebsch Inc., New York, 1922.
The Blight of Bureaucracy
in State Government*
A
MAJOR
PROBLEM of government,
as well as of big business,
is to find a
way
of restoring
to competent
officialsnot only responsibility
but authority
as well. If our stateinstitutionsare to attract outstanding leadership,
New
York must regain
the crusadingspirit
that inspired
so many
of her admin-
istratorsin the past.
John
E.
Burton, former directorof the budget,
sums up
the matter in
two short sentences:
Keep the duties of administrationas much as possible in the hands of the people who
spend the money. This makes not only for efficiency,
but also for responsibility.
On May
Gov. Martin H. Glynn
called the Legislature
of the
State of New York in extraordinary
session to concentrate upon
the ques-
tion of state finances. On May
6 of that year,
HerbertF. Prescott, deputy
fiscal adviser of state charities,
made a report
to the extraordinary
session
on "Conflictof Authority
and Laws Concerning
CharitableInstitutionsof
the State." In that report
he stated in part:
The present interlocking system of department control of public institutions in the
state is expensive,confusing, and inefficient. Initiative is smotheredin a mass of red tape.
Department has been piled upon department
until the mass is top heavy
with ex-
travagance.
An army of clerks is required in state institutions to carry on correspondence with
over twenty departments,many of which would be entirely unnecessary if the system of
administrationwere put on a businessbasis.
There are today
more state departmentsassisting in running
these charitable institu-
tions than there are institutions, and their powers, duties and responsibilities are so inter-
locked that the transaction of institutional business is very slow and very expensive
(Assembly Document No. 2, May 6, 1914).
Our state government
has been completely reorganized
since
Today
we cannot possibly
have more state departmentssupervising
the
fifty-eight
institutions than there are institutionsto supervise,
becausethere
are now only
nineteen departments.
Thanks largely
to formerGov. Alfred
E. Smithand former Gov. CharlesEvans Hughes,
who headedthe executive
committee appointedby
the State Reorganization
Commissionin 1926,
the
From the 42d annual report of the board of visitors of Letchworth Village, Utica,
N. Y., State Hospitals Press, 1951, pp. 116-19.
