The Theory of Challenge and Response and the Development of Political Institutions

Abstract

This article cites Arnold Toynbee’s theory of ‘challenge and response’ as presented in the 12 volume “A Study of History” written by Toynbee between 1934 and 1960. Toynbee holds that the origins of civilization lie in human attempts to address major challenges. Such challenges, which Toynbee’s theory divides into five categories, arise in natural or social environments. The writer concludes that the responses of societies to these challenges depend on characteristics which derive from the seven primary institutional structures of each society. Developing their own country to keep pace with the states which were threatening them, Japanese society responded to challenges from Western superpowers in the era of colonialism and thereby avoided the grasp of colonialist powers.