Some notes on Modernization Theory + smereuenoe Modernization theory attempts to explain social change. In its american form, ic {s the response cf Anerical political elites and intellectuals to the international scene of post-World War II. The Cold War, plus the emergence of Third World societies as important actors in world politics, helped to create American interest in non-Western societies Social scientists turned to problems of social, economic and politicat "development", Central to modernization theory is the idea of development. This notion of developmentalisa which may be traced to the notion that social change may be studied by analogy with the. biological growth of individual organisms, has dominated thinking about social change in the last two centuries. Modernization designates for most theorists the process of change "through which a traditional pretechnological society passes as it is transforwed Intro a society scharacteRized by machine technology, rational and secular attitudes, and highly differentiated social structures." (J. O'Connell, "The Concept of Modernization" in South Atlantic 64 (1965). This change is directional: The directional process is “forward” and "Upward" and evolutionaty in character. The modernization process is a teansieiony or ruther a secley GF Hatvicfons fron prinitive subsistence economies to techology-intensive, industrialized economies; from closed, status quo systems to open, achievment-oriented systems; from extended to nuclear kinship units; from religious to secular ideclogies, etc. Thus conceived, modernization is not a “natural” process of change; it is a process which is defined in terms of the goals toward which it is moving. The goals are (1) the implementation of the Western (American) models Tor "Aodernity")and (2) the gissefation “GP that the teory conceives "traditional societies’ to be. The concepts "Modern™ and "Traditional" are ideological concepts; one is positive, the other negative. Xarl Marxformulated this view in blunt terms: "England has broken dow the entire framework of Indian society, without any symptom of reconstruction yet epzearing England has a double mission to fulfill...one destruction, the other regeneration. ..the annhilation of the old Asiatic society...and the laying of the material’ foundations of Western society in Asia." THE THEORY: Modernization is the process of change in which a "traditional" society is transformed into’a "modern" society. The traditional society {s undeveloped, under-develop or developing; as such, it is backward locking, static, closed, fatalistic, rigid, permeated with religious beliefs and rituals Modern society, in stark contrast, is developed, secular (rational) open to change, dynanfc, Innovative, future oriented. Modern (Western, Civilized, Developed) + 1, Secular: Culture highly rationalized; religion has its place in the realm of private belief and practice. + 2. Open to Change; orientation to present and future. + 3. Centrality of Modera Nation State (Democratic); high participation by the governed. + 4, Industrialized, technologica? orientation. + S$. Nuclear Family + 8. Capacity to meet most internal or external challenges. + 7. Dynamic ional (Non-Western, Uncivilized, under-developed, developing(in process of change, transition to "Wodern") - 1. Religious; culture permeated by religious norms and practices (irrational). - 2. Closed; normative values located in the past; orientation to the past. - 3, Tribal; minimal participation of the governed in political affairs - 4. agrarian; labor intensive. - 5. Extended family based on kinship - ‘6. Limited capacity to meet external or internal challenges - 7. Static PROBLEM: ‘The Attributes or characteristics that are assigned to the model "Traditional" are hypothetical opposites of those assigned to “modern”. Thus the former are not deritee tion eapltical tidy of "non-Western socleties", but rather are characterizations which follow from the ideology of modernization. (oT