GLOBALISATION: THE ERA OF DEVELOPMENT, 1945-1989
LECTURE: GOALS
1: Highlight assumptions of modernization theory.
2:1: Core arguments: body of intellectual ideas that re: modernization theory (sociology, economic and political).
Assumptions of modernization theory:
Modernization theorists –whether economists, political scientists, sociologists -were rooted in a basic paradigm:
- underdevelopment defined in terms of observable economic, political, social and cultural differences between rich and poor nations.
-Development as an evolutional process: development implied the bridging of these gaps by means of an imitative process, in which the less developed countries gradually assumed the qualities of the industrialized nations.
Sociological dimension:
-Talcott Parsons: ‘pattern variables’:
a) PARTICULARISM VS. UNIVERSALISM:
traditional society is defined as characterized by particularism, whereas modern society is characterized by Universalism.
-traditional society: when one only has values that can be utilized in the context of unique social relations, A society is at the traditional end of the continuum.
-When there standards which can be applied to any individual regardless of their position in society, universalism is said to exist..
b) ASCRIBED STATUS VS ACHIEVED STATUS.
-Ascribed status implies the existence of inherent qualities associated with the specific individuals concerned.
-For example, in a society, which respects the wisdom of its older members, as soon as one becomes an elder, that wisdom is assumed to exist by definition.
-ACHIEVED STATUS depends upon a capacity to satisfy independent and abstract criteria that are defined independently of the other qualities of the individual concerned.
c) DIFFUSENESS VS. SPECIFICITY.
-Diffuse relations refer to the complex web of interconnections that link people together involving many roles and aspects of their lives. Diffuse relations combine all aspects of the individual’s role in society and it is not possible to exclude consideration of some of these different aspects when individuals interrelate—
Modern: Specificity: possible to distinguish the different roles performed by individuals and to be concerned with just one of them—for example, as employer or employee, landlord or tenant, and so forth.
-Building upon Parsons, pattern variables theoretical foundations, modernization theorists emphasized features of the process by which it was thought the undeveloped societies of the world would become modern.
Economic perspective on modernization theory:
-W.W. Rostow:Stages of Economic Growth: A Non-Communist Manifesto (1960).
1) Traditional society: This society is mainly agricultural economy and using more or less unchanging production methods.
2) The pre-take-off society: the economic prerequisites for a take-off are created: Ideology- the possibility of economic progress is recognized by local elites; agricultural productivity increases rapidly; creation of a development infrastructure—roads, airports, etc.
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3) ‘take off” phase: the last obstacles to economic development are removed;
- the share of net investment and saving in national income rises from 5 per cent to 10 per cent or more.
-Results:a process of rapid industrialization, were certain sectors of the economy assume a leading role; changes in production techniques, increases in per capita output, and political, social and institutional change supporting innovation; economic growth becomes more or less automatic;. Among the pre-conditions for ‘take off” Rostow identifies two which connect his work with the sociological analysis of modernization society—society becomes characterized by achieved status (rather than ascribed status and instrumental rationality rather emotion modes of thought dominant).
4) The “drive to maturity’ stage: modern technology is spread throughout the economy; 10-20 per cent of national income is invested; economic output exceeds population increase; society trades off old values against new ones according to the demands of efficient production.
5) The fifth and final stage is “the age of high mass consumption”: economic production shifts towards consumer durables and services; resources can be allocated social welfare and security; increased military spending and a society seeks power in international sphere.
Political science and modernization
Political scientists working within the modernization paradigm followed the arguments laid by Parsons and Rustow and other modernization theorists.
people in the developing world would through the modernization process attain “political development” defined along the lines of Parson’s pattern variables:
-According to the Gabriel Almond and Sydey Verba, (The Civic Culture): just as a country modernizes economically moving through a continuum of economic stages, it would move through a continuum of political stages which the developed capitalist countries had already passed through, in the build-up of political structures, particularly of state structures.
-Following Parson’s pattern variables, Gabriel Almond outlined the following as indicators of what developing countries needed to do in their search for political development.
1) Political Socialization—the teaching of modern political values and norms
2) Interest Articulation- the seeking forth of different groups’ interests
3) Interest aggregation—the bringing together of these interests presumably through political parties
4) Political Communication—communication of these interests to government officials
5) The creation of rule making, administration and adjudication institutions –here is meant the creations of institutions such as Congress, parliaments, (making); Executive (administration) and adjudication (the modern judiciary system).
-Thus political development in this formulation consisted in the growth and institutionalization of these functions.
-Agents of political development: modernizing elites from the developing countries---According Samuel Huntington this ‘enlighten elite, by definition, would need to hold power and be insulated from any popular pressures from below. In this respect Huntington and others working within the modernisation perspective advocated the establishment of one party authority states—”development dictatorship states; newly created international institutions—World Bank, International Monetary Fund, and United Nations’ specialized agencies such as the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP)