Modernization Theory: Societal Evolution and Economic Growth
The modernization approach shows a great influence of classical evolutionism, which can be plotted on a linear view of social change. It suggests that backward societies must follow the same path as developed ones. The changes are irreversible and inevitably move towards modernity, based on democratic values and the capitalist mode of production in the Fordist phase. The change occurs endogenously, sequentially, gradually, and non-confrontationally. It is the result of structural or functional differences, to adapt the social system. The process of modernization improves living conditions.
Theories of Modernization
Theories of modernization break with the idea that progress is something spontaneous. They seek to locate the barriers to development, for it is used to design instruments of intervention, from engineering and social planning to achieve the expected results. In this paradigm, social change comes from above, from the political, economic, and intellectual elites, not the underprivileged. They propose the creation of a coherent set of policies for development, providing for raising all the world’s population to the level of developed countries that had achieved democracy, capitalism, industrial development, and modernization. Theories break with the idea that progress is something spontaneous. It seeks to locate the barriers to development, for it is used to design intervention tools from engineering and social planning to achieve the expected results.
Parsons’ Modernization Paradigm
Parsons’ modernization paradigm suggests a functional theory of social change in social systems, following the organic analogy. He designed what he called a paradigm of evolutionary change. In formulating its great social theory, it relies on the contributions of Durkheim, Weber, and Pareto. Little attention was given to Marx. As a result, Marxist theory continues to exclude the dominant sociological analysis. His attention is on the implications of this growth in the structures of the social system in the process of functional differentiation in the mechanisms of integration and unification of parts of this system. Assume that a system is a structure consisting of units or components that have stable properties, which can be relational, or as events or processes in the course of which “something happens” to change some properties and some relationships between them. Then talk about systems or relatively stable equilibrium, when the relationship between their structure and processes taking place in it and between it and its environment are such that relatively modify these properties and relationships.
Walt Rostow’s Stages of Economic Growth
Walt Rostow, the most genuine representation of the bipolar environment and the process of Western modernization, was captured in the central work of this American author, whose title is quite significant: “The Stages of Economic Growth: A Non-Communist Manifesto.” He defined all pre-capitalist societies as traditional, and modernization was the mechanism for the convergence of the backward countries with developed through technology. The nature of the technologies of industrial societies reinforces specific forms of social organization, political, cultural patterns, behaviors, and even everyday beliefs and attitudes.
Describing the Wealth of Nations
Does it describe how some countries are enriching? It describes how some countries are enriching, from a blend of:
- Security
- Free Trade
- Antitrust Law
Regulated by an “invisible hand”. According to Smith, the production and exchange of goods increases, and therefore also raises the standard of living of the population, if the private entrepreneur, industrial and commercial, can act freely through regulation and minimal government control (Government intervention). Smith established the principle of the “invisible hand” to seek their own interests, all individuals are driven by an “invisible hand” that achieves the best possible social goal. The wealth of nations is also a guide for the design of the economic policy of a government, this is what triggers the liberal economy so the government will have a macroeconomic model of the free market.
Characteristics of Theoretical Modernization
What characterizes theoretical Modernization? The idea that progress goes hand in hand with the adoption of rules of behavior, attitudes, and values identified with modern economic rationality, characterized by the pursuit of maximum productivity, income generation, creation of investment to accumulate wealth by individuals and each national society.
Difference Between Growth and Development
The difference between growth and development: Economic development includes intangible aspects such as freedom of thought, religion, intellectual, cultural, access to information, and public opinion. We now turn to another factor mentioned in our statement that economic growth is one that refers to a nation’s economic progress, for example, to changes in technology to produce more.