soci 423: theories of social developmentassumptions characteristic of neo-evolutionary,...

College of Education

School of Continuing and Distance Education2014/2015 – 2016/2017

SOCI 423:

THEORIES OF SOCIAL DEVELOPMENT

Lecturer: Dr. James Dzisah

Email: [email protected]

SESSION 5:

MODERNIZATION THEORY:

THEORETICAL ASSUMPTIONS AND CRITICISMS

SESSION OVERVIEW

• In this session, we focus attention on the Theoretical,methodological assumptions of modernization theory aswell as the general criticisms leveled against the theory.

• Goals /Objectives: by the end of the session, thestudent will be able to:

• Explain the Theoretical and the methodologicalassumptions underpinning modernization theory

• Identify the various criticisms leveled againstmodernization theory.

SESSION OUTLINE

• Theoretical Assumptions

• Methodology Assumption

• Criticisms of Modernization theory– Unidirectional Development

– The Need to Eliminate Traditional Values

– Methodological Problems

– The Ideological Critique

– Neglect of the Issue of Foreign Domination

• Activity

• References

THEORETICAL ASSUMPTIONS

• The modernization school presents a multidisciplinaryeffort to examine the prospects for Third Worlddevelopment.

• Each discipline contributes in its own way to identifying keyissues concerning modernization.

• Thus sociologists focus upon the change of patternvariables and structural differentiation, economists stressthe importance of speeding up productive investments,and political scientists highlight the need to enhance thecapacity of the political system.


• Despite the school's multidisciplinary nature, however, research, however,researchers in the modernization school do share two sets of assumptions andmethodology in their study of Third World development.

• Since the modernization theorists fail to spell out their assumptions andmethodology explicitly, it may be fruitful to review them.

• The first set of assumptions shared by modernization researchers are certainconcepts drawn from European evolutionary theory.

• According to the evolutionary theory, social change is unidirectional, progressive, andgradual, irreversibly moving societies from a primitive stage to an advanced stage,and making societies more like one another as they proceed along the path ofevolution.

• Building upon such a premise, modernization researchers have implicitly formulatedtheir theories with the following traits (see Huntington 1976, p. 30-31).


1. Modernization is a phased process: Rostow's theory, forinstance, distinguishes different phases of modernizationthrough which all societies will travel. Societies obviouslybegin with the primitive, simple, undifferentiated traditionalstage and end with the advanced, complex, differentiatedmodem stage. In this respect, Levy argues that societies can becompared in terms of the extent to which they have moveddown the road from tradition to modernity.

2. Modernization is a homogenizing process: Modernizationproduces tendencies toward convergence among societies. AsLevy (1967, p. 207) contends, “As time goes on, they and wewill increasingly resemble one another ... because the patternsof modernization are such that the more highly modernizedsocieties become, the more they resemble one another."


3. Modernization is a Europeanization (or Americanization)process: In the modernization literature, there is an attitude ofcomplacency toward Western Europe and the United States.These nations are viewed as having unmatched economicprosperity and democratic stability (Tipps 1976).

• And since they are the most advanced nations in the world,they have become the models the latecomers would like toemulate.

• In this respect, modernization is simply a process ofEuropeanization or Americanization, and is often defined assuch.

• For example, since Western Europe and the United States arehighly industrialized and democratic, industrialization anddemocracy have become the trademarks of the modernizationperspective.


4. Modernization is an irreversible process: Oncestarted, modernization cannot be stopped.

• In other words, once Third World countries come intocontact with the West, they will not be able to resistthe impetus toward modernization.

• Although the rate of change will vary from one countryto another, the direction of change will not.

• Thus Levy calls modernization a "universal socialsolvent" that dissolves the traditional traits of theThird World countries.


5. Modernization is a progressive process:• The agonies of modernization are many, but in the long run

modernization is not only inevitable, but desirable.• For Coleman, the modernized political system has a much

better capacity to handle the functions of:– national identity,– legitimacy,– penetration,– participation, and– distribution than the traditional political system.

6. Modernization is a lengthy process: It is an evolutionarychange, not a revolutionary change. It will takegenerations, or even centuries, to complete, and itsprofound impact will be felt only through time.


• The other set of assumptions shared by modernizationresearchers are drawn from functionalist theory, whichemphasizes the interdependence of social institutions, theimportance of pattern variables at the cultural level, andthe built-in process of change through homeostaticequilibrium.

• Influenced by these Parsonian ideas, modernizationresearchers have implicitly formulated the concept ofmodernization with the following traits.

1. Modernization is a systematic process: The attributes ofmodernity form a consistent whole, thus appearing inclusters rather than in isolation (Hermassi 1978).


• Modernity involves changes in virtually all aspects of socialbehavior, including industrialization, urbanization, mobilization,differentiation, secularization, participation, and centralization.

2. Modernization is a transformative process: In order for asociety to move into modernity, its traditional structures andvalues must be totally replaced by a set of modern values.

• As Huntington (1976) points out, the modernization schoolconsiders "modernity" and "tradition" to be essentiallyasymmetrical concepts.

• Although the traits of modernity are clearly laid down, those oftradition are not. For the sake of convenience, everything that isnot modern is labelled traditional.


• Consequently, tradition has a small role to play and has to be replaced (orcompletely transformed) in the process of modernization.

3. Modernization is an immanent process: Due to its systematic andtransformative nature, modernization has built change into the socialsystem.

• Once a change has started in one sphere of activity, it will necessarilyproduce comparative changes in other spheres (Hermassi 1978).

• For example, once the family has begun the process of differentiation, otherinstitutions-the economy, the mass media, the police, and so on-have toundergo the process of differentiation and integration too.

• Due to this assumption of immanence, the modernization school tends tofocus upon the internal sources of change in the Third World countries.

METHODOLOGY ASSUMPTIONS

• In addition to sharing evolutionary and functionalist assumptions,members of the modernization school also adopt a similarmethodological approach for their research.

• Modernization researchers tend to anchor their discussions at ahighly general and abstract level.

• Since their aim is to explain general patterns, universal trends, andcommon prospects for Third World development, they do not want tobe preoccupied with unique cases and historically specific events.

• In order to draw high-level generalizations, modernization researchersrely upon Parsons's ideal-type construction (such as traditionalsocieties versus modern societies) to summarize their key argumentof dichotomous ideal types becomes a major effort of students of themodernization school.

METHODOLOGY ASSUMPTIONS

• With regard to units of analysis, Tipps (1976) points outthat it is the national territorial state that is of criticaltheoretical significance to the modernization theorist, evenif this does remain largely implicit.

• However it may be conceptualized, whetherindustrialization or structural differentiation, eachcomponent the modernization process is viewed as asource of change operated at the national level.

• Thus modernization theories are basically theories oftransformation of nation-states.

CRITICISMS OF MODERNIZATION THEORY

• Unidirectional Development:

1. Critics have challenged the evolutionary assumptions ofunidirectional development. Why do Third World countriesneed to move in the direction of Western countries?

2. The critics assert that belief in unidirectional development hasresulted in modernization researchers overlooking alternativepaths of development for Third World countries

3. Critics argue that modernization researchers are overlyoptimistic. They mistakenly assume that since westerncountries have achieved development , third World countriescan also


• The Need to Eliminate Traditional Values:

1. Critics attack the functionalist assumption ofincompatibility between tradition and modernity.First, the critics ask: what is really tradition? Is it truethat third World countries have a set of homogenousand harmonious traditional values?

2. The critics ask, are traditional values and modernvalues mutually exclusive? The critics assert that intraditional societies, modern values have always beenpresent, and coexisted.


• The Need to Eliminate Traditional Values:

3. Are traditional values always obstacles tomodernization? Do we need to eliminate traditionalvalues in order to promote modernization? Forexample, in the modernization of Japan, thte value of“loyalty to the emperor” was easily transformed to“loyalty to the firm”, which helped to enhanceworkers’ productivity and cut down the turnover rate

4. Can modernization totally displace traditional values?Critics point out that traditional values will always bepresent in the process of modernization.


• Methodological Problems:

1. According to critics, modernization researcher tendto formulate their arguments at such a high level ofabstraction that it is hard to know what country andwhat historical period that they are discussing.

2. The critics argue that there is a lack of before-and-after historical research undertaken by modernizationsocial scientists. They simply take cross nationalresearch at a given period to be historical researchover time.


• The Ideological Critique:

1. From the neo-Marxist viewpoint, the modernizationperspective is a cold war ideology that is used tojustify the intervention of the United States in thirdworld affairs.

2. Bodenheimer (1970) points to the ‘ideology ofdevelopmentalism’. According to him the literature ofdevelopment has suffered form four epistemologicalsins:


a. Belief in the possibility of an objective social science freefrom ideology

b. Belief in the cumulative quality of knowledge

c. Belief in universal laws of social science, and

d. Export of these three beliefs to Third World countries

• These epistemological sins led to the theoretical errors ofbelief in incremental and continuous development


• Neglect of the Issue of Foreign Domination

• The modernization school is criticized for ignoring thecrucial element of foreign domination such as thehistory of colonialism, the control of multinationalcorporations over Third World economies

ACTIVITY

a. Critics argue that institutions like the World Bank areimplicitly, if not explicitly, guided by the tenets ofmodernization and neo-evolutionary theories. Find a copy ofone of the World Bank’s recent World Development Reports,or access the Bank’s website on www. worldbank.org/ andsee what evidence you can find, if any, of ideas orassumptions characteristic of neo-evolutionary,modernization, or neo-modernization theory.

b. To what extent are all theories of development aboutmodernization?

c. Critically assess the extent to which modernization theoriesexplain the status of the ‘Third World’

REFERENCES

• Harrison, D. 1988. The Sociology of Modernisation andDevelopment. London: Macmillan.

• Roberts, J. Timmons, and Bellone Hite, A. (eds.) (2007). TheGlobalization and Development Reader: Perspectives onDevelopment and Global Change. Oxford: BlackwellPublishing

• So, A. Y. 1990. Social Change and Development. London:Sage Publishing, chapter 3, pages 38-59.

soci 423: theories of social developmentassumptions characteristic of neo-evolutionary,...

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