The Moderization Perspective

THE MODERNIZATION PERSPECTIVE

THE MODERNIZATION PERSPECTIVE

Modernization School as a product of three crucial events in the post world war II era.

1st: Rise of United States as a super power.2nd: Spread of a united world communist movement.3rd: Disintegration of European colonial empires giving birth to many new nation- states in the Third World.

EVOLUTIONARY THEORY

EVOLUTIONARY THEORY

Industrial Revolution - with science and technology, productivity rose and there was a conquest of the world market.

French Revolution - created new political order based on equality, liberty, freedom, and parliamentary democracy.

EVOLUTIONARY THEORY

Features of Classical Evolutionary Theory

•Assumed that social change is unidirectional•Imposed a value judgment on evolutionary process•Assumed that the rate of social change is slow, gradual and piecemeal

FUNCTIONALIST THEORY

FUNCTIONALIST THEORY

1st: Institutions in a society are closely related to one another.2nd: Each institution performs a certain function.3rd: Institutions are in harmony and not in conflict with one another.4th: There’s pattern variables to distinguish traditional from modern societies.

FUNCTIONALIST THEORY

5 Sets of Pattern Variables

• Affective vs. Affective- Neutral Relationship

• Particularistic vs. Universalistic Relationship

• Collective Orientation vs. Self Orientation

• Ascription vs. Achievement

• Functionality Diffused vs. Functionally

Specific Relationship

SOCIOLOGICAL APPROACH: Levy’s relatively

modernized societies

SOCIOLOGICAL APPROACH: LEVY’S RELATIVELY MODERNIZED SOCIETIES

Modernization is defined by the extent to which

tools and inanimate sources of power are utilized.

Modernization occurs because of contact between

relatively modernized societies and relatively

non-modernized societies.

How do relatively modernized societies differ fromrelatively non-modernized societies?

Relatively Nonmodernized Societies

Relatively Modernized Societies

Specialization ofOrganization

Low compartmentalization of life

high

Interdependency of organization

Low (high level ofSelf suffiency)

high

Relationship emphasis Tradition, particularism,Functional diffuseness

Rationality, universalism,Functional specificity

Degree of centralization

low high

Generalized media ofExchange and market

Less emphasis More emphasis

Bureaucracy and familyconsideration

Precedence of family norm(nepotism as a virtue)

Insulate bureaucracy fromThe contacts

Town- village interdependence

One- way flow of goods and services from rural to urban contexts

Mutual flow of goods and services between towns and villages.

SOCIOLOGICAL APPROACH: LEVY’S RELATIVELY MODERNIZED SOCIETIES

What are the prospects for the Third World

late comers in their modernization efforts?

•To borrow initial expertise in planning

•Capital accumulation

•Skills

•Patterns of organization without the cost of invention

•Skipping nonessential stages

SOCIOLOGICAL APPROACH: Smelser’s

structural differentiation

SOCIOLOGICAL APPROACH: SMELSER’S STRUCTURAL DIFFERENTIATION

Modernization involves structural differentiation

because, though the modernization process, a

complicated structure that performed multiple

functions is divided into many specialized

structures that perform just one function each.

SOCIOLOGICAL APPROACH: SMELSER’S STRUCTURAL DIFFERENTIATION

The classic example is the family institution.

In the past, the traditional family had a

complicated structure:

- large and multigenerational

- multifunctional (reproduction and

emotional support, production,

education, welfare and religion.

SOCIOLOGICAL APPROACH: SMELSER’S STRUCTURAL DIFFERENTIATION

In modern society, it has undergone structural

differentiation, with a simpler structure – small

and nuclear.

Modern society is more productive, children are

better educated, and the needy receive more

welfare than before.

SOCIOLOGICAL APPROACH: SMELSER’S STRUCTURAL DIFFERENTIATION

What happens after a complicated institution has differentiated into many simpler ones?

Smelser argues that although structural differentiation has increased the functional capacity of institutions, it has also created the problem of integration.

SOCIOLOGICAL APPROACH: SMELSER’S STRUCTURAL DIFFERENTIATION

According to Smelser, new institutions and roles have to be created to coordinate the newly differentiated structures.

In order to protect employees from the abuse of employers, new orgs such as labor unions and the Department of Labor have been created to perform the protection function.

SOCIOLOGICAL APPROACH: SMELSER’S STRUCTURAL DIFFERENTIATION

The problem of integration may still not have been solved satisfactorily.

First, there is the issue of values conflict.

Second, there is the issue of uneven development.

SOCIOLOGICAL APPROACH: SMELSER’S STRUCTURAL DIFFERENTIATION

According to Smelser, social disturbances are the result of lack of integration among differentiated structures.

This framework of structural differentiation serves to draw attention to the examination of the problems of integration and social disturbances that are so common in Third World countries.

ECONOMIC APPROACH: Rostow’s Stages of Economic Growth

THE ECONOMIC APPROACH: ROSTOW’S STAGES OF ECONOMIC GROWTH

“The Take-Off into Self-Sustained Growth” (1964)

- a representative chapter in Rostow’s written classic work

- states that there are five major stages of economic development

THE ECONOMIC APPROACH: ROSTOW’S STAGES OF ECONOMIC GROWTH

1. The Third World country is at the traditional stage.

2. Then the rise of new entrepreneurs, the expansion of markets, the development of new industries, and so on, begins. This stage is called “precondition for takeoff growth”.

THE ECONOMIC APPROACH: ROSTOW’S STAGES OF ECONOMIC GROWTH

• Stimulus – needed in order to propel the Third World countries beyond the precondition stage (e.g. political revolutions, technological innovation, international environment)

THE ECONOMIC APPROACH: ROSTOW’S STAGES OF ECONOMIC GROWTH

3. After moving beyond the precondition stage, a country that wants to have self-sustained economic growth must have the capital and resources for takeoff.

THE ECONOMIC APPROACH: ROSTOW’S STAGES OF ECONOMIC GROWTH

How can a nation obtain the capital and resources for productive investment?

- through confiscatory and taxation devices

- from institutions such as banks, capital markets, government bonds, and stock market

- through foreign trade

- from direct foreign capital investment

THE ECONOMIC APPROACH: ROSTOW’S STAGES OF ECONOMIC GROWTH

4. Once economic growth has become an automatic process, the fourth stage—the drive to maturity—is reached.

5. This is soon followed by growth in employment opportunities, increase in national income, rise of consumer demands, and formation of a strong domestic market. This is the final stage: “high-mass consumption society”.

THE ECONOMIC APPROACH: ROSTOW’S STAGES OF ECONOMIC GROWTH

• If the problem facing Third World countries lies in their lack of productive investment, then the solution lies in forms of capital, technology, and expertise.

POLITICAL APPROACH: Coleman’s

Differentiation-Equality-Capacity Model

THE POLITICAL APPROACH: COLEMAN’S DIFFERENTIATION-EQUALITY-

CAPACITY MODEL

Political Modernization, according to Coleman, refers to the process of:

1.Differentiation of political structure, and

2.Secularization of political culture, which

3.Enhance the capacity of a society’s political system

THE POLITICAL APPROACH: COLEMAN’S DIFFERENTIATION-EQUALITY-

CAPACITY MODEL

First, Coleman refers to differentiation as the process of progressive separation and specialization of roles and institutional spheres in the political system.

Second, he argues that equality is the ethos of modernity. The politics of modernization is the quest for and the realization of equality.

THE POLITICAL APPROACH: COLEMAN’S DIFFERENTIATION-EQUALITY-

CAPACITY MODEL

• What then are the issues concerning equality?

- distributive equality

- legal equality

- equality of opportunity

- equality of participation

THE POLITICAL APPROACH: COLEMAN’S DIFFERENTIATION-EQUALITY-

CAPACITY MODEL

Third, Coleman asserts that the quest for differentiation and equality may lead to growth of political capacity of the system.

- Modernization is seen as the progressive acquisition of political capacity for the system.

THE POLITICAL APPROACH: COLEMAN’S DIFFERENTIATION-EQUALITY-

CAPACITY MODEL

Political capacity if manifested in an increase in scope of the following political functions:

• Scale of political community

• Efficacy of the implementations of political decisions

• Penetrative power of central governmental institutions

• Comprehensiveness of the aggregation of interests by political assoc.

• Institutionalization of political organization and procedure

• Problem-solving capabilities

• Ability to sustain new political demands and organizations

THE POLITICAL APPROACH: COLEMAN’S DIFFERENTIATION-EQUALITY-

CAPACITY MODEL

Finally, Coleman cautions that differentiation and demands for egalitarianism may also create tension and divisiveness within the political system.

Coleman mentions the ff. six crises of modernization:

1. the crisis of national identity

2. the crisis of political legitimacy

3. the crisis of penetration

4. the crisis of participation

5. the crisis of integration

6. the crisis of distribution

THE POLITICAL APPROACH: COLEMAN’S DIFFERENTIATION-EQUALITY-

CAPACITY MODEL

For Coleman, the modernization of a political system is measured by the extent to which it has successfully developed the capacities to cope with these generic system-development problems.

THEORETICAL ASSUMPTIONS AND

METHODOLOGY

THEORETICAL ASSUMPTIONS AND METHODOLODY

Researchers in modernization school share two sets of assumptions and methodology in their study of Thirld World development.

The first set are concepts drawn from European evolutionary theory – social change is unidirectional, progressive, and gradual.

THEORETICAL ASSUMPTIONS AND METHODOLODY

(1)Modernization is a phased process.

(2)Modernization is a homogenizing process.

(3)Modernization is a Europeanization (or Americanization) process.

(4)Modernization is an irreversible process.

(5)Modernization is a progressive process.

(6)Modernization is a lengthy process.

THEORETICAL ASSUMPTIONS AND METHODOLODY

The other set of assumptions shared by modernization researchers are drawn from functionalist theory – emphasizes the interdependence of social institutions, the importance of pattern variables, and the built-in process of change through homeostatic equilibrium.

THEORETICAL ASSUMPTIONS AND METHODOLODY

(1)Modernization is a systematic process.

(2)Modernization is a transformative process.

(3)Modernization is an immanent process.

THEORETICAL ASSUMPTIONS AND METHODOLODY

Members of the modernization school also adopt a similar methodological approach for their research.

First, modernization researchers tend to anchor their discussions at a highly general and abstract level.

THEORETICAL ASSUMPTIONS AND METHODOLODY

Second, modernization researchers rely upon Parsons’s ideal type construction to summarize their key arguments.

Third, the indexing of the features of dichotomous ideal types becomes a major effort of students of the modernization school.

THEORETICAL ASSUMPTIONS AND METHODOLODY

Basically, modernization theories are theories of transformation of nation-states.

POLICY IMPLICATIONS

POLICY IMPLICATIONS

Modernization theories were originally formulated in response to the new leadership role of the United States took on after World War II.

They have important policy implications:

POLICY IMPLICATIONS

First, modernization theories help to provide an implicit justification for the asymmetrical power relationship between “traditional” and “modern societies” (Tipps 1976).

Second, modernization theories identify the threat of communism in the Third World as a modernization problem.

POLICY IMPLICATIONS

• Modernization theories suggest economic development, the replacement of traditional values, and the institutionalization of democratic procedures.

Third, modernization theories help to legitimate the “meliorative foreign aid policy” of the United States (Chirot 1981, Apter 1987).