Human society began with small isolated groups, typically of 20-30 individuals, that self-organised by developing individual and group skills and responsibilities to ensure survival. As societies became more complex, so too did the ways of organising and managing them. A few took upon themselves, or were nominated by the many, to take decisions that ensured the prosperity of all.

Today, the governments of China and India each manage the affairs of over a billion people, and most countries count their populations in the millions. How are such large populations managed as a single political entity? How do governments succeed in inspiring their populations to have a shared identity and collective aspirations?

India and China reinvented themselves after centuries of deflection of their traditional systems by colonial adventurism. To put it simplistically, India has done it by recalling its ancient civilisational achievements, China by gathering around Confucianism. Europe developed a collective identity as a privileged economic power.

World War II brought in its wake forces that transformed the cultural and political landscape of the entire world. Colonisation withdrew as a political presence but expanded its cultural presence. A new colonial force emerged from across the Atlantic. One of its first actions was the 1948 Marshall Plan,........

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