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Modernization theory
About: Modernization theory is a research topic. Over the lifetime, 14641 publications have been published within this topic receiving 232469 citations.
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TL;DR: The Coca-colonization thesis as discussed by the authors claims that the West has led the world to modern society, and that as people in other civilizations modernize they also westernize, aban doning their traditional values, institutions, and customs and adopt ing those that prevail in the West.
Abstract: In recent years Westerners have reassured themselves and irritated others by expounding the notion that the culture of the West is and ought to be the culture of the world. This conceit takes two forms. One is the Coca-colonization thesis. Its proponents claim that Western, and more specifically American, popular culture is enveloping the world: American food, clothing, pop music, movies, and consumer goods are more and more enthusiastically embraced by people on every continent. The other has to do with modernization. It claims not only that the West has led the world to modern society, but that as people in other civilizations modernize they also westernize, aban doning their traditional values, institutions, and customs and adopt ing those that prevail in the West. Both theses project the image of an emerging homogeneous, universally Western world?and both are to varying degrees misguided, arrogant, false, and dangerous. Advocates of the Coca-colonization thesis identify culture with the consumption of material goods. The heart of a culture, however, involves language, religion, values, traditions, and customs. Drinking Coca-Cola does not make Russians think like Americans any more
325 citations
Book•
30 Oct 2000
TL;DR: In this paper, the structural foundation of a pact: the transformation of elite interests is discussed, and the insurgent path to democracy in oligarchic societies is described, from civil war to democracy.
Abstract: Introduction 1. From civil war to democracy: improbable transitions in oligarchic societies Part I. El Salvador's Path to Democracy: 2. From conservative modernization to civil war 3. The structural foundation of a pact: the transformation of elite interests 4. Negotiating a democratic transition to end civil war Part II. From Racial Oligarchy to Pluralist Democracy in South Africa: 5. Apartheid, conservative modernization, and resistance 6. The challenge to elite economic interests 7. From recalcitrance to compromise Conclusion 8. The insurgent path to democracy in oligarchic societies Epilogue: the legacy of democracy forged from below.
323 citations
Book•
29 Sep 2009
TL;DR: Pincus as discussed by the authors argues that the Glorious Revolution was a European event, that it took place over a number of years, not months, and that it had repercussions in India, North America, the West Indies, and throughout continental Europe.
Abstract: For two hundred years historians have viewed England's Glorious Revolution of 1688-1689 as an un-revolutionary revolution-bloodless, consensual, aristocratic, and above all, sensible. In this brilliant new interpretation Steve Pincus refutes this traditional view. By expanding the interpretive lens to include a broader geographical and chronological frame, Pincus demonstrates that England's revolution was a European event, that it took place over a number of years, not months, and that it had repercussions in India, North America, the West Indies, and throughout continental Europe. His rich historical narrative, based on masses of new archival research, traces the transformation of English foreign policy, religious culture, and political economy that, he argues, was the intended consequence of the revolutionaries of 1688-1689. James II developed a modernization program that emphasized centralized control, repression of dissidents, and territorial empire. The revolutionaries, by contrast, took advantage of the new economic possibilities to create a bureaucratic but participatory state. The postrevolutionary English state emphasized its ideological break with the past and envisioned itself as continuing to evolve. All of this, argues Pincus, makes the Glorious Revolution-not the French Revolution-the first truly modern revolution. This wide-ranging book reenvisions the nature of the Glorious Revolution and of revolutions in general, the causes and consequences of commercialization, the nature of liberalism, and ultimately the origins and contours of modernity itself.
323 citations
Posted Content•
TL;DR: In this article, Mol analyzes both globalization's destructive environmental consequences and its contribution to global environmental reform, focusing on three case studies, one involving the economic triad of the European Union, the NAFTA region, and Japan; another involving the relationship between the triad and developing countries; and a third involving three developing countries: Vietnam, the Netherlands Antilles, and Kenya.
Abstract: Many writers either glorify globalization or vilify it, particularly for its destructive environmental effects. In this book environmental sociologist Arthur Mol provides a more balanced understanding of the relationship between globalization and environmental quality. Mol bases his arguments on his theory of ecological modernization, which holds that although processes of modernization and globalization often result in environmental degradation, they also can encourage policies and programs designed to arrest degradation and improve environmental quality. Building on earlier ecological modernization studies that focused on Europe, North America, and East and Southeast Asia, Mol takes here a more global perspective. He also addresses the increasing roles of nonstate actors, especially international institutions, nongovernmental organizations, popular movements, and transnational corporations. After examining the confusion created by the failure to distinguish among globalization, global capitalism, and neoliberalism, Mol analyzes both globalization's destructive environmental consequences and its contribution to global environmental reform. Elaborating on the subject of reform, he focuses on three case studies, one involving the economic triad of the European Union, the NAFTA region, and Japan; one involving the relationship between the triad and developing countries; and one involving three developing countries: Vietnam, the Netherlands Antilles, and Kenya.
322 citations
TL;DR: For instance, Coleman and Messick as discussed by the authors used the prerequisites approach to explain the first adoption of Social Security in the United States and found that the adoption of social security was correlated with the level of social and economic modernization.
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
319 citations