Showing papers on "Modernization theory published in 1975"

Prerequisites Versus Diffusion: Testing Alternative Explanations of Social Security Adoption

Abstract: Social security is one of the most important means by which modern nations protect the welfare of their citizens. The first appearance of social security represents a particularly important policy juncture at which many nations broke from the anti-welfare doctrine of traditional liberalism. The bulk of scholarship on social security treats its adoption as an explanation for other aspects of the social security experience, instead of an outcome to be explained. This article analyzes two alternative explanations of the timing of adoption: the prerequisites hypothesis, involving the level of development within nations, versus diffusion among nations. Three patterns emerge. Among the earliest adopters, social security diffuses up a developmental hierarchy of nations rather than down a hierarchy; in the middle group of adopters, a pattern of spatial diffusion is present in which social security is rapidly diffused among countries at widely different levels of modernization; and among the latest adopters, a combination of hierarchical diffusion and a prerequisite explanation appear to be the most satisfactory means of accounting for the pattern of adoption.

Prerequisites Versus Diffusion: Testing Alternative Explanations of Social Security Adoption

Abstract: Prerequisites Versus Diffusion: Testing Alternative Explanations of Social Security Adoption* DAVID COLLIER Indiana University RICHARD E. MESSICK George Washington University Social security is one of the most important means by which modern nations protect the wel- fare of their citizens. Through programs that deal with the hardships of workers' injury, illness, old age, unemployment, and low income, social se- curity attempts to set a minimum standard of living for the sectors of society covered by the programs. In countries with fully developed pro- grams, social security now protects nearly all members of society. Given the importance of social security, it is hardly surprising that scholars have shown con- siderable interest in analyzing its evolution. Among the many aspects of social security de- velopment, the timing of the first adoption of social security merits particular attention. The circumstances of the first appearance of any policy are inherently interesting, and the first ap- pearance of social security is particularly impor- tant because it has represented in many nations a major break with the antiwelfare doctrine of tra- ditional liberalism. The timing of first adoption has received con- siderable attention in comparative research on social security.' However, this research has gen- * This is a revised version of a paper presented at the 1973 Annual Meeting of the Midwest Political Science Association, Chicago. The research was sup- ported by grants from the Cross-Cultural Fellowship Program and the Honors Division of Indiana Uni- versity and by a Ford Foundation Political Science Faculty Research Fellowship. John V. Gillespie played a major role in stimulating our concern with the place of diffusion in cross-national research, and Ruth B. Collier provided helpful comments on earlier drafts of the article. We are obviously solely re- sponsible for the final form which the article has taken. 1 See Margaret Gordon, The Economics of Welfare Policies (New York: Columbia University Press, 1963); Phillips Cutright, Political Structure, Eco- nomic Development and National Social Security Programs, The American Journal of Sociology, 70 (March, 1965), 537-550; Phillips Cutright, Income Redistribution: A Cross-National Analysis, Social Forces, 46 (December, 1967), 180-190; Henry Aaron, Social Securitv: International Comparisons, in Otto Eckstein, ed., Studies in the Economics of Income Maintenance (Washington, D.C.: The Brookings Insti- tution, 1967); Frederick Pryor, Public Expenditures in Communist and Capitalist Nations (Homewood, Ill.: erally used the timing of adoption to explain other aspects of the social security experience of nations, and not as an outcome that is itself to be explained.2 The present research is concerned with explaining the timing of the first adoption of so- cial security among the 59 countries which had formal political autonomy with regard to domes- tic policy at the time of first adoption (see Ap- pendix). The analysis focuses on two of the most im- portant explanations of social security develop- ment: the prerequisites explanation, which em- phasizes causes of social security development within nations, most commonly the level of social and economic modernization; and diffusion, which focuses on the imitation of social security programs among nations. These alternative theo- retical approaches have received very unequal at- tention in political research. The prerequisites approach has been widely used, particularly in the area of comparative politics.4 By contrast, George Allen and Unwin, Ltd., 1968); and Koji Taira and Peter Kilby, Differences in Social Se- curity Development in Selected Countries, Inter- national Social Security Review, 22 (1969), 139-153. 2 In quantitative research, the only exception of which we are aware is a two and a half page analysis in Appendix E-12 in Pryor, Public Expenditures. His- torical studies such as Gaston V. Rimlinger, Welfare Policy and Industrialization in Europe, America and Russia (New York: John Wiley & Sons, 1971) have also attempted to explain timing of adoption. 3 This expression is used loosely here to refer to what Marion Levy has labeled functional and struc- tural prerequisites. In using the expression prerequi- sites, we are following his distinction between the prerequisites for the appearance of a given phenome- non and the requisites for its continued existence. See Marion J. Levy, Jr., The Structure of Society (Princeton: Princeton University Press, 1952), pp. 62-63 and 71-72. 4Examples of cross-national studies that examine various forms of the prerequisites and requisites hypotheses (see footnote 3) with regard to demo- cratic political outcomes are S. M. Lipset, Some Social Requisites of Democracy: Economic Develop- ment and Political Legitimacy, American Political Science Review, 53 (March, 1959), 69-105; James S. Coleman, Conclusion: The Political Systems of the Developing Areas, in Gabriel A. Almond and James S. Coleman, eds., The Politics of the Developing Areas (Princeton: Princeton University Press, 1960) Electronic copy available at: http://ssrn.com/abstract=1676534

The surrogate proletariat : Moslem women and revolutionary strategies in Soviet Central Asia, 1919-1929

Abstract: The attempted modernization of Central Asia by the central Soviet government in the 1920's was a dramatic confrontation between radical, determined, authoritarian communists and a cluster of traditional Moslem societies based on kinship, custom, and religion. The Soviet authorities were determined to undermine the traditional social order through the destruction of existing family structures and worked to achieve this aspect of revolution through the mobilization of women. Gregory J. Massell's study of the interaction between central power and local traditions concentrates on the development of female roles in revolutionary modernization. Women in Moslem societies were segregated, exploited, and degraded; they were, therefore, a structural weak point in the traditional order--a surrogate proletariat. Through this potentially subversive group, it was believed, intense conflicts could be generated within society which would lead to its disintegration and subsequent reconstitution. The first part of the book isolates the trends that made Central Asia vulnerable to outside intervention, and examines the factors that impelled the communist elites to turn to Moslem women as potential revolutionary allies. In the second part, Professor Massed analyzes Soviet perceptions of female inferiority and of the revolutionary potential of Moslem women. Part Three is an account of specific Soviet actions based on these assumptions. The fourth part of the book deals with the variety of responses these actions evoked.Originally published in 1974.The Princeton Legacy Library uses the latest print-on-demand technology to again make available previously out-of-print books from the distinguished backlist of Princeton University Press. These paperback editions preserve the original texts of these important books while presenting them in durable paperback editions. The goal of the Princeton Legacy Library is to vastly increase access to the rich scholarly heritage found in the thousands of books published by Princeton University Press since its founding in 1905.

From Region to Class, The Changing Locus of Country Music: A Test of the Massification Hypothesis

Abstract: The regionalization, commercialization, and subsequent diffusion of country music are examined in terms of the massification hypothesis. Each of the data sets examined suggests that the massification theorists were right in observing that the old patterns of cultural diversity along ethnic, regional, and even class lines are being destroyed or buried. But they have erred in their prediction of ever-increasing cultural homogeneity. While country music is increasingly embraced by mid-life, working and lowermiddle class whites irrespective of regional origin, "easy listening" music is the preferred music in the same segment of the population. These data bring into question the assumption that social classes have distinct cultures and lead to the conjecture that these musical styles may represent convenient indicators of emerging culture classes. The impact of modernization on cultural diversity has long held the attention of scholars. Industrialization, urbanization, and particularly the mass media are said to destroy regional, ethnic, religious, occupational, and similar forms of cultural diversity, replacing these with the homogenized products of mass culture. This massification hypothesis,was derived from observations made during the 1930s of the effects of commercial radio, popular music, movies, and mass circulation magazines on cultural traits in the United States, and also the propaganda uses made of these media by the rising totalitarian governments of Europe. The hypothesis was fully articulated in diverse essays and research studies made in the decade following World War II (Jacobs, 1959; Rosenberg and White, 1957). Dwight Macdonald (1957:62) puts the hypothesis most succinctly, "Mass culture is a dynamic, revolutionary force, breaking down the old barriers of class, tradition, taste, and dissolving all cultural distinctions. It mixes and scrambles-everything together, producing what might be called * This project was funded in part by grant RO7855-73-154 from the National Endowment for the Humanities which is gratefully acknowledged. Johnny Bond, Norman Cohen, George Collier, Gregory Daniels, Skeeter Davis, Archie Green, William Ivey, Grelun Landon, Ronnie Light, Jens Lund, Anthony Oberschall, Ruth Slack, and James D. Thompson provided much information, insight and encouragement along the way; Victoria Bransford and Russell Davis helped in the coding; while Patricia Averill, George Lewis, Claire Peterson, Neil V. Rosenberg, and Richard Simpson have added greatly to the clarity of the argument by their careful reading of an earlier draft of the paper. This content downloaded from 207.46.13.183 on Thu, 29 Sep 2016 05:49:50 UTC All use subject to http://about.jstor.org/terms 498 / SOCIAL FORCES / vol. 53:3, march 1975 homogenized culture." Comprehensive critiques of the theory, data, and metaphysics of massification can be found in Bauer and Bauer (1960) and Gans (1966). For our purposes, it is convenient to separate the massification hypothesis into two elements: first, that the forces of modernization significantly reduced cultural diversity; and second, that an increasingly homogeneous mass culture has emerged. All available evidence supports the first assertion that many cultural differences have been destroyed. This can be seen whether one looks at general processes such as the "Americanization" of immigrants or traces the ebb of regional differences in a particular culture realm such as blues music or linguistic dialects. The second assertion, that of increasing homogeneity, is however an oversimplification at best. Although the few well-researched studies that have been made do show little significant difference in cultural tastes across a wide range of social classes or occupations, this may be, as Wilensky (1964) recognized, in part an artifact of the way measurements are made. First, media with little available diversity, such as radio in the 1940s and television in the 1950s and 1960s, are often used; and second, cultural taste is frequently conceptualized simply as "high art" versus "popular culture" or some similar distinction which arbitrarily restricts to one dimension the range of cultural diversity

Modernization, Modernity, and Perceptions of Aging: A Cross-Cultural Study

Abstract: Data from a comparative study of 5,450 young males in six developing nations were used to investigate the association between modernization or modernity and negative attitudes toward aging. The findings question the frequent assertion that "modernity" (the exposure of individuals in developing nations to industrial technology and urban social experience) results in negative perceptions of aging and diminished value attributed to the aged. The data do provide support for the hypothesis that "modernization" (societal development) is related to negative perceptions of aging. Results suggest the necessity of differentiating between "modernization" and "modernity" as levels of analysis and of avoiding value-laden assumptions concerning advantages of either traditional or industrial social settings with respect to the position of elders.

women in modernizing societies1

Abstract: It is commonly assumed that modernization generally brings an increase in sexual equality. This paper examines the alternative possibility, that modernization favors an inferior status for women. Focusing on economic variables as a basis for comparison, an examination of modern changes in various societies in which women's traditional position has been relatively strong indicates a deterioration in women's position relative to men.

Residential Patterns in Pre-Industrial Cities: Some Case Studies from Seventeenth-Century Britain

Abstract: The models of pre-nineteenth-century cities formulated by Sjoberg and Vance are compared. The two writers postulated different kinds of social ecology because they based their deductions about spatial patterns upon different social structures, and this difference, in turn, resulted from their use of different economic variables as sociological determinants. An analysis of the hearth tax returns for three British cities, and of data produced by linking these returns with the admissions lists of freemen in Newcastle, shows that neither of their models replicates what happened in these cities. In Newcastle, a merchant oligarchy existed, dominating a particular residential-cum-economic area, and the gild organization of crafts was reflected in the spatial zoning of occupational groups. Although some parts of Newcastle were occupationally mixed, this probably did not represent the emergence of 'class zoning'. IN the literature of urban geography, little space is devoted to pre-nineteenth-century cities. When the subject is discussed it is usually treated with a bland lack of controversy: textbooks, and monographs and papers on historical and modern cities are alike in their exclusive and uncritical presentation of Sjoberg's generalizations about what he termed the 'pre-industrial city'.1 The reasons for this situation are not, of course, hard to find. Until recently, this was the only set of generalizations available, and the continents in which much of the recent work in urban social geography has been done have no great fund of pre-nineteenth-century urban experience. The current preoccupation of urban social geographers with techniques of analysis which require large arrays of data, and with theories which link urbanism with industrialization or modernization, and thus define the pre-nineteenth-century city out of consideration, also contribute to this end. Moreover, the ease with which the processes which destroyed the 'pre-industrial city' can be thought of as synonymous with those which created the modern city has contributed to the development of the concept of 'ecological transition', and this fusion seems only to have bolstered the confidence of urban geographers in Sjoberg's monolithic ideas about the nature of cities before the transition occurred.2 The result is a general agreement that urban society was segregated by wealth or status, with the rich and powerful living near to the centre and the poor and powerless on the periphery of cities before industrialization, or modernization. Afterwards, class-based segregation became manifest, and the social geography of cities, in terms of these two gross categories, was reversed. It is time to question forcefully the basis of this certitude about the early stage of this sequence. Such questioning has been begun by Vance,3 who recently introduced a welcome note of controversy into the geographical literature. It can be taken a stage further by examining the differences between the conclusions of Sjoberg and Vance, and the reasons for their differences. This should help to bring more sharply into focus the fact that there is not, yet, any set of acceptable generalizations about the social geography of pre-nineteenth-century cities. An attempt to relate the assumptions and conclusions of Sjoberg and Vance to a reasonably sound body of empirical evidence is also necessary, not only because of their differences, but also because each

The Political Economy of the People's Commune in China: Changes and Continuities

Abstract: The establishent of the Chinese rural people's commune in 1958 as a new political and economic organization has aroused considerable interest among observers. One important question in this regard has been the role the commune has played in China's modernization. Since China is committed to both “socialist transformation and construction,” modernization in China involves two tasks: revolution and development. As for China's rural problems, the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) regards the commune as the best organization for achieving these two goals during its transition to communism. Yet the commune has undergone a series of changes as a result of interactions between the Party's revolutionary goals and its development requirements, presenting a microcosm of Chinese communism. This article is an attempt to account for changes and continuities in the political economy of the commune.

Modernization and the Demographic Transition in Latin America and the Caribbean

Abstract: This article argues that despite some apparent evidence to the contrary the theory of demographic transition applies in broad outline to present day developing countries The arguments are made that 1) development or modernization is a multifaceted holistic process consisting of interrelated aspects affecting all areas of life; 2) mortality and natality declines are part of development and are sensitive indicators of the level of development; and 3) mortality declines are found at early stages of development while natality declines are found only after a certain level of development has been reached Cross-sectional analyses of recent demographic and socioeconomic variables in 25 Latin American and Caribbean countries are used to demonstrate empirically that both mortality and natality levels must be correlated with the level of modernization The article examines the worldwide relation between levels of development as measured by per capita gross national product and the crude birth and death rates discusses methodological problems and explains the procedures employed and presents the regional analysis By the early 1960s about 1/2 the countries of the region had modernized to the extent that their birthrates were about 10 or less All these countries had entered the natality transition by the 1960s or later In the new demographic transition exemplified by Latin American and Caribbean countries the mortality decline proceeded so rapidly that it reached a very low level before the natality decline began even though the lag between the mortality and fertility declines was much less than before The results are rates of natural increase of 30-35/1000 population The rates of increase are unprecedented as are the rates of modernization and development accompanying them As long as economic development takes place the elevated rate of natural increase in developing countries should not be sustained as long as was true in the currently developed countries With some exceptions improvements in literacy health education communications gross product and other components of modernization appear to be taking place in Latin America Empirical evidence suggests that Latin American and Caribbean modernization has a coherent structure in which birth and death rates have a characteristic place

Curriculum Innovations and Traditional Culture: A Case History of Kenya

Abstract: The modernization process in the Third World often presents situations in which western educational ideas are being transplanted into significantly different socio-political climates than where they first originated. Educational methods and techniques, borrowed from the more developed states primarily because they seem to have worked there, should be analysed critically in their new setting to discern how universally applicable they really are. One such case, the use of popular curriculum planning techniques by the East African nation of Kenya, has produced some unpected consequences in a society seeking to use education to foster rapid national development. In Kenya a decade of serious efforts to improve the primary school curriculum by relying increasingly on standard curriculum design procedures has not borne as much fruit as originally anticipated. As in any complex educational situation there are multiple, varied reasons for Kenya's low returns on new curriculum, but the crux of the issue seems to have been largely overlooked. Upon closer examination we shall see that by viewing curriculum change primarily as a technological matter, deep cultural and philosophical issues have been minimized which are actually crucial to effective curriculum change. Since curriculum developers in Kenya are merely following practices widely adhered to in the western world, the underlying causes of failure assume more than just local interest. A review of curriculum change in this developing nation thus becomes an examination of general curriculum theory and practice.

Women and Property in Morocco: Their Changing Relation to the Process of Social Stratification in the Middle Atlas

Abstract: This is a study of the effects of 'modernization' on the social and economic world of women in Morocco. Vanessa Maher suggests that three systems of social stratification modify one another: a system of classes based on relation to the means of production; a system of estates, differentiated by inherited status; and a system of segmentary tribal groups, based on territorial rights. Although all Moroccans use all these systems on different occasions it is the women who, faced with their own exclusion from wage-earning, along with the instability of marriage and the inadequacy of most family incomes, respond by perpetually reconstituting the groups on which they must depend, those based on territorial rights and putative kinship. By observing these social networks, Maher has been able to identify part of what inhibits the development of class consciousness, and what favours a clientistic political structure.

The status and integration of the aged in Japanese society.

Abstract: Japan is an exception to the general rule that modernization causes a sharp decline in status and integration of the aged. Most of the Japanese elders continue to live with their children and perform important functions in the householf. The majority of men over 65 continue to be in the labor force. The elders are also well integrated into their communities through clubs and visits with neighbors. The high status of the elders is reflected in many private and public practices which give precedence to older persons. Thus, even in modern societies, a culture which promotes respect for the aged can maintain high levels of status and integration for its older citizens.

Over-Urbanization and Under-Urbanism: The Case of the Arab World

Abstract: Speaking of comparative urbanization, Gideon Sjoberg noted that the Near East, the region in which cities first rose, has been understudied by urban sociologists. Few research projects have been realized on contemporary urbanization in the Arab World. This paper purports to examine recent trends of urbanization in the region; and their inter-relationship with the ‘modernization’ process.

Modernization and mobility into the patrimonial medical elite in Thailand.

Abstract: As a patrimonial society Thailand is useful for comparing Marxist, functional, and Weberian hypotheses concerning mobility into the elite profession during early modernization. Evidence concerning the social origins of physicians in Thailand was collected from 1934 to 1966 and from a questionnaire survey administered to 666 male students in 1966. For the past four decades the medical profession has been accessible almost exclusively to the children of the elite classes. Despite this class closure, the expansion of the medical profession is linked with a substantial increase in status mobility from families that own commercial shops. This movement from the bourgeoisie into the government bureaucracy indicates the relevance of Weber's theory of patrimonial authority for comparative analysis.

Class, caste and community of South Indian industrialists: An examination of the Horatio Alger Model

Abstract: Development economists have been preoccupied with the problem of increasing the size of the GNP pie to the relative neglect of the distribution of this pie. Despite the recent disenchantment with the viewpoint that all classes share in the benefits of industrial growth, empirical data on the distribution of income, business opportunity, and economic power are in short supply. This study, which focuses on the origins of manufacturing entrepreneurs in a newly industrializing city in coastal Andhra, India, offers one perspective on vertical socio‐economic mobility, and the differences in economic opportunities between the privileged and underprivileged portions of the population. A highly disproportional number of the entrepreneurs (especially successful ones) are from twice‐born castes and from families with a high economic status. Members of the dominant castes, leading classes, and large business houses can avert the threat of democratization, industrialization and modernization to the positions of their ...

Urbanization and Urban Conflict in Southeast Asia

Abstract: URBANIZATION IS ONE of the most rapid processes of social change throughout the world. Considerable social and demographic transformations accompanied the growth of the world urban population that more than doubled between 1950 and 1960 (from about 313 to about 655 million people). By 1975 the world urban population will probably be well above the 1,000 million line. Not too long ago urbanization and urban growth were seen as an indicator of modernization and progress. In 1958, Daniel Lerner could still claim that rapid urbanization is the pre-condition for modernization and development: "It is the transfer of population from scattered hinterlands to urban centers that stimulates the needs and provides the conditions needed for 'take off' towards wide-spread participation.... Cities produce the machine tools of modernization."' Today scholars have become less optimistic about urbanization. Cities are no longer seen as the centers of change and progress but rather as areas of crises. Not only New York and London, but Calcutta, Rio de Janeiro and Jakarta are seen as the centers of social problems, illiteracy, disease, crime, and poverty. Nevertheless, differences between the urbanization process in Europe and North America and in the cities of the developing world are considerable. Before discussing the state and process of urbanization in Southeast Asia, we have to turn to some problems of definition and measurement. Leaving aside all cultural and social structural definitions of urbanization and concentrating for the moment only on crude population statistics, the following distinctions are necessary. Urbanization refers first of all to a state of affairs, namely, the percentage of population living in urban areas in a nation state. Secondly, it refers to a process, namely, the increase in the total urban population. This latter distinction, though seemingly of no great importance, is very relevant to our discus-

An Operational Definition of Societal Modernization

Abstract: Modernization as a construct plays an important role in theories of social change. Theoretical speculations about and conceptual definitions of the phenomenon, however, usually appear more sophisticated than the empirical referents which are chosen in hypothesis testing. The operational definition which will be proposed here seeks to go beyond simple unidimensional or linear combinations of indicators. By performing a limited and informal curve-fitting exercise, a mathematical function can be derived which generates "modernization scores." These scores could in turn be used in testing hypotheses empirically, although such is beyond the exploratory intent of this study. The mathematical function described can be seen as constituting an operational definition of societal modernization. Before detailing the derivation of the index of modernization, we should take a brief look at the relation of the modernization construct to

Education, Individual Modernity, and National Development: A Critical Appraisal

Abstract: The concept of individual modernity has elicited increasing attention in the last ten years from a growing number of specialists concerned with the nature of the development process in the modernizing countries. The work of Kahl, Dawson, Doob, Schnaiberg, Portes, Inkeles and Smith, and others argued persuasively for the emergence of individuals in traditional cultures who exhibit a variety of intellectual and psychological traits matched to the demands of new and changing environments.' These modem individuals are identified conceptually by their ability to respond more competently to the forces of industrialization than their less adaptable peers. How such attitudes and dispositions are acquired is a topic we shall examine in detail. Schooling, a major force in the societal modernization process, is abundantly described in the literature on societal development. In recent years the prominence of schooling in the process of individual adjustment to the institutions of the industrialized world has also been extensively documented. Our specific objectives here are threefold. First, we will review the growing body of empirical research that links education to the acquisition of individual modernity. Second, we

Education and Administrative Control in Colonial Sudan and Northern Nigeria

Abstract: EDUCATION in Muslim, as in other societies, is a social institution influenced by and influencing other social institutions, but subordinate to politics. It tends to reflect the values of the political rulers, and to be strongly conditioned by the history and geography of the territory concerned. Educational problems will be of a different nature, for example, in countries such as the Sudan, with a population of about twelve million, inhabiting one million square miles, and Gambia, only about four thousand square miles in extent, but with a population of about 315,000, i.e., a population density per square mile nearly eight times as large. The degree of ethnic and religious homogeneity, in Muslim as in other countries, is also of great importance; one might compare Libya, where the population is virtually 100 per cent Arab and Muslim, with the much more complex situations in the Sudan and Nigeria, where Muslims comprise only about a third in Nigeria or a half of the population approximately in the Sudan.' Government priorities in educational policy will not be the same in countries experiencing different kinds of political and economic change, with varying rates of 'modernization', involving different degrees of human tensions. Schools can work to consolidate or change traditional values.2 But political and economic considerations are often more crucial even than religious or professional pressures. They set limits upon the degree of social change possible in the schools. It is relevant, however, to note the particularly close weave of religious, legal, family and educational institutions in traditional Muslim communities. Traditional Islam provided an integrated system of community organization, regulating the personal behaviour of individuals and of groups. Had an 'alien' administration in control of political change attempted to establish a system of education which was seen to be basically 'foreign' to traditional Islam, the very existence of those schools would have become hazardous. Nevertheless, during the period of 'foreign' rule, problems which were sometimes seen by educators, administrators or others as mainly educational or religious were really political and economic. For example, the greatest problem of the Sudan from the mid-1950s was the civil