Misplaced Pages

#238761

74-766: The theory is subject of much debate among scholars. Critics have highlighted cases where industrialization did not prompt stable democratization , such as Japan, Germany, and the Soviet Union, as well as cases of democratic backsliding in economically advanced parts of Latin America. Other critics argue the causal relationship is reverse (democracy is more likely to lead to economic modernization) or that economic modernization helps democracies survive but does not prompt democratization. Other scholars provide supporting evidence, showing that economic development significantly predicts democratization. The modernization theory of

148-548: A country from the second to the third stage he expected that once it reached maturity, it would have a large energized middle class that would establish democracy and civil liberties and institutionalize human rights. The result was a comprehensive theory that could be used to challenge Marxist ideologies, and thereby repel communist advances. The model provided the foundation for the Alliance for Progress in Latin America,

222-503: A crucial part in globalization. Former U.S. president Lyndon B. Johnson was a supporter of the modernization theory and believed that television had potential to provide educational tools in development. With the many apparent positive attributes to globalization there are also negative consequences. The dominant, neoliberal model of globalization often increases disparities between a society's rich and its poor. In major cities of developing countries there exist pockets where technologies of

296-778: A further stimulus to industrial investment and economic growth . Moreover, family structures tend to shift as extended families tend to no longer live together in one household, location or place. The first transformation from an agricultural to an industrial economy is known as the Industrial Revolution and took place from the mid-18th to early 19th century. It began in Great Britain, spreading to Belgium, Switzerland, Germany, and France and eventually to other areas in Europe and North America. Characteristics of this early industrialisation were technological progress,

370-447: A link between economics and politics that is not conditional on institutions and culture and that presumes a definite endpoint—for example, an 'end of history'." Industrialisation Industrialisation ( UK ) or industrialization ( US ) is the period of social and economic change that transforms a human group from an agrarian society into an industrial society . This involves an extensive reorganisation of an economy for

444-529: A link between economics and politics that is not conditional on institutions and culture and that presumes a definite endpoint—for example, an 'end of history'." Sirianne Dahlum and Carl Henrik Knutsen offer a test of the Ronald Inglehart and Christian Welzel revised version of modernization theory, which focuses on cultural traits triggered by economic development that are presummed to be conducive to democratization. They find "no empirical support" for

518-436: A more Westernized one. By one definition, modern simply refers to the present, and any society still in existence is therefore modern. Proponents of modernization typically view only Western society as being truly modern and argue that others are primitive or unevolved by comparison. That view sees unmodernized societies as inferior even if they have the same standard of living as western societies. Opponents argue that modernity

592-470: A positive effect on GDP per capita." Globalization can be defined as the integration of economic, political and social cultures. It is argued that globalization is related to the spreading of modernization across borders. Global trade has grown continuously since the European discovery of new continents in the early modern period ; it increased particularly as a result of the Industrial Revolution and

666-488: A shift from rural work to industrial labour, and financial investments in new industrial structures. Later commentators have called this the First Industrial Revolution. The " Second Industrial Revolution " labels the later changes that came about in the mid-19th century after the refinement of the steam engine , the invention of the internal combustion engine , the harnessing of electricity and

740-417: A strong causal relationship between economic development and democracy." In Chapter V, Lipset analyzed "Fascism"—Left, Right, and Center, and explained that the study of the social bases of different modern mass movements suggests that each major social stratum has both democratic and extremist political expressions. He explained the mistakes of identifying extremism as a right-wing phenomenon, and Communism with

814-494: A substantial contributions to cleavage theory. In The Democratic Century (2004), Lipset sought to explain why North America developed stable democracies and Latin America did not. He argued that the reason for this divergence is that the initial patterns of colonization, the subsequent process of economic incorporation of the new colonies, and the wars of independence varied. The divergent histories of Britain and Iberia are seen as creating different cultural legacies that affected

SECTION 10

#1732772427239

888-405: Is a strong cross-country correlation between income and democracy, once one controls for country fixed effects and removes the association between income per capita and various measures of democracy, there is "no causal effect of income on democracy." In "Non-Modernization" (2022), they further argue that modernization theory cannot account for various paths of political development "because it posits

962-417: Is academic debate over the drivers of democracy because there are theories that support economic growth as both a cause and effect of the institution of democracy. "Lipset's observation that democracy is related to economic development, first advanced in 1959, has generated the largest body of research on any topic in comparative politics," Anderson explains the idea of an elongated diamond in order to describe

1036-455: Is independent of culture and can be adapted to any society. Japan is cited as an example by both sides. Some see it as proof that a thoroughly modern way of life can exist in a non western society. Others argue that Japan has become distinctly more Western as a result of its modernization. As Tipps has argued, by conflating modernization with other processes, with which theorists use interchangeably (democratization, liberalization, development),

1110-414: Is less able than the tertiary sector to accommodate both increased productivity and employment opportunities; more than 40% of the world's employees are " working poor ", whose incomes fail to keep themselves and their families above the $ 2-a-day poverty line . There is also a phenomenon of deindustrialisation , as in the former USSR countries' transition to market economies, and the agriculture sector

1184-546: Is often the key sector in absorbing the resultant unemployment. Seymour Martin Lipset Seymour Martin Lipset ( / ˈ l ɪ p s ɪ t / LIP -sit ; March 18, 1922 – December 31, 2006) was an American sociologist and political scientist . His major work was in the fields of political sociology, trade union organization, social stratification , public opinion, and the sociology of intellectual life. He also wrote extensively about

1258-1135: The American Sociological Association (1992–1993). He also served as the President of the International Society of Political Psychology, the Sociological Research Association, the World Association for Public Opinion Research, the Society for Comparative Research, and the Paul F. Lazarsfeld Society in Vienna. Lipset received the MacIver Prize for Political Man (1960) and, in 1970, the Gunnar Myrdal Prize for The Politics of Unreason . In 2001, Lipset

1332-603: The Industrial Revolution , the French Revolution and the Revolutions of 1848 and has long been regarded as reaching its most advanced stage in Europe. Anthropologists typically make their criticism one step further and say that the view is ethnocentric and is specific to Western culture . One alternative model is dependency theory . It emerged in the 1950s and argues that the underdevelopment of poor nations in

1406-613: The Peace Corps , Food for Peace , and the Agency for International Development (AID). Kennedy proclaimed the 1960s the "Development Decade" and substantially increased the budget for foreign assistance. Modernization theory supplied the design, rationale, and justification for these programs. The goals proved much too ambitious, and the economists in a few years abandoned the European-based modernization model as inappropriate to

1480-978: The United States Institute of Peace , a board member of the Albert Shanker Institute , a member of the US Board of Foreign Scholarships, co-chair of the Committee for Labor Law Reform, co-chair of the Committee for an Effective UNESCO , and consultant to the National Endowment for the Humanities , the National Humanities Institute, the National Endowment for Democracy , and the American Jewish Committee . Lipset

1554-886: The University of California, Berkeley , the University of Toronto , and George Mason University where he was the Hazel Professor of Public Policy . Lipset was a member of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences , the United States National Academy of Sciences , and the American Philosophical Society . He was the only person to have been President of both the American Political Science Association (1979–1980) and

SECTION 20

#1732772427239

1628-1058: The economic communities do not consider contemporary industrialisation policies as being adequate to the global south (Third World countries) or beneficial in the longer term, with the perception that they may only create inefficient local industries unable to compete in the free-trade dominated political order which industrialisation has fostered. Environmentalism and Green politics may represent more visceral reactions to industrial growth. Nevertheless, repeated examples in history of apparently successful industrialisation (Britain, Soviet Union, South Korea, China, etc.) may make conventional industrialisation seem like an attractive or even natural path forward, especially as populations grow, consumerist expectations rise and agricultural opportunities diminish. The relationships among economic growth, employment, and poverty reduction are complex, and higher productivity can sometimes lead to static or even lower employment (see jobless recovery ). There are differences across sectors , whereby manufacturing

1702-416: The nuclear family , consisting of only parents and their growing children, predominates. Families and children reaching adulthood are more mobile and tend to relocate to where jobs exist. Extended family bonds become more tenuous. One of the most important criticisms of industrialisation is that it caused children to stay away from home for many hours and to use them as cheap workers in factories. Between

1776-513: The " Third World ", as it was called at the time. They promoted modernization models in order to reorient American aid to Asia, Africa and Latin America. In the Rostow version in his The Stages of Economic Growth (1960) progress must pass through five stages, and for underdeveloped world the critical stages were the second one, the transition, the third stage, the takeoff into self-sustaining growth. Rostow argued that American intervention could propel

1850-490: The "Lipset hypothesis" and the "Lipset thesis". The Lipset hypothesis has been challenged by Guillermo O'Donnell , Adam Przeworski and Daron Acemoglu and James A. Robinson . One of the debates as to how exactly democracy emerges, is between endogenous or exogenous democratization. Endogenous democratization holds the argument that democratization happens as a result of the country's previous history leading up to that point. So here economic development and expansion of

1924-795: The 1950s and 1960s drew on classical evolutionary theory and a Parsonian reading of Weber's ideas about a transition from traditional to modern society. Parsons had translated Weber's works into English in the 1930s and provided his own interpretation. After 1945 the Parsonian version became widely used in sociology and other social sciences. Some of the thinkers associated with modernization theory are Marion J. Levy Jr. , Gabriel Almond , Seymour Martin Lipset , Walt Rostow , Daniel Lerner, Lucian Pye , David Apter , Alex Inkeles , Cyril Edwin Black , Bert F. Hoselitz , Myron Weiner , and Karl Deutsch . By

1998-505: The 1960s and 1970s that authoritarian regimes yielded greater economic growth than democracies. However, this view had been challenged. In Democracy and Development: Political Institutions and Well-Being in the World, 1950–1990 (2000), Adam Przeworski argued that "democracies perform as well economically as do authoritarian regimes." A study by Daron Acemoglu , Suresh Naidu , Pascual Restrepo, and James A. Robinson shows that "democracy has

2072-580: The 1960s version of modernization theory in significant ways. Counter to Lipset, who associated industrial growth with democratization, Inglehart and Welzel did not see an association between industrialization and democratization. Rather, they held that only at a latter stage in the process of economic modernization, which various authors have characterized as post-industrial , did values conducive to democratization – which Inglehart and Welzel call "self-expression values" – emerge. Nonetheless, these efforts to revive modernization theory were criticized by many (see

2146-459: The 1960s, some critics argued that the link between modernization and democracy was based too much on the example of European history and neglected the Third World . One historical problem with that argument has always been Germany whose economic modernization in the 19th century came long before the democratization after 1918 . Berman , however, concludes that a process of democratization

2220-612: The Inglehart and Welzel thesis and conclude that "self-expression values do not enhance democracy levels or democratization chances, and neither do they stabilize existing democracies." A meta-analysis by Gerardo L. Munck of research on Lipset's argument shows that a majority of studies do not support the thesis that higher levels of economic development leads to more democracy. Modernization theorists often saw traditions as obstacles to economic development . According to Seymour Martin Lipset, economic conditions are heavily determined by

2294-841: The Northern Telecom-International Council for Canadian Studies Gold Medal, and the Leon Epstein Prize in Comparative Politics by the American Political Science Association . He received the Marshall Sklare Award for distinction in Jewish studies and, in 1997, he was awarded the Helen Dinnerman Prize by the World Association for Public Opinion Research. Lipset's first wife, Elsie, died in 1987. She

Modernization theory - Misplaced Pages Continue

2368-486: The Third World derived from systematic imperial and neo-colonial exploitation of raw materials. Its proponents argue that resources typically flow from a "periphery" of poor and underdeveloped states to a "core" of wealthy states , enriching the latter at the expense of the former. It is a central contention of dependency theorists such as Andre Gunder Frank that poor states are impoverished and rich ones enriched by

2442-551: The book, Democracy in Developing Countries: Latin America , argue that economic performance affects the development of democracy in at least three ways. First, they argue that economic growth is more important for democracy than given levels of socioeconomic development. Second, socioeconomic development generates social changes that can potentially facilitate democratization. Third, socioeconomic development promotes other changes, like organization of

2516-540: The concentration of power in the hands of a few at the top during an authoritarian leadership. He develops this by giving an understanding of the shift in power from the elite class to the middle class that occurs when modernization is incorporated. Socioeconomic modernization allows for a democracy to further develop and influences the success of a democracy. Concluded from this, is the idea that as socioeconomic levels are leveled, democracy levels would further increase. Larry Diamond and Juan Linz , who worked with Lipset in

2590-472: The conditions for democracy in comparative perspective. He was president of both the American Political Science Association (1979–1980) and the American Sociological Association (1992–1993). A socialist in his early life, Lipset later moved to the right, and was considered to be one of the first neoconservatives . At his death in 2006, The Guardian called him "the leading theorist of democracy and American exceptionalism "; The New York Times said he

2664-477: The construction of canals, railways, and electric-power lines. The invention of the assembly line gave this phase a boost. Coal mines, steelworks, and textile factories replaced homes as the place of work. By the end of the 20th century, East Asia had become one of the most recently industrialised regions of the world. There is considerable literature on the factors facilitating industrial modernisation and enterprise development. The Industrial Revolution

2738-409: The country by law. This led to a legal awakening for citizens as they were becoming more educated on the law, yet more understanding of their inequality in relation to the government. Looking down the line in the 2000s, Chinese citizens saw even more opportunities to liberalize and were able to be a part of urbanization and could access higher levels of education. This in turn resulted in the attitudes of

2812-501: The cultural, social values present in that given society. Furthermore, while modernization might deliver violent, radical change for traditional societies , it was thought worth the price. Critics insist that traditional societies were often destroyed without ever gaining the promised advantages. Others point to improvements in living standards, physical infrastructure, education and economic opportunity to refute such criticisms. Modernization theorists such as Samuel P. Huntington held in

2886-404: The cultures they were trying to impact. Kennedy and his top advisers were working from implicit ideological assumptions regarding modernization. They firmly believed modernity was not only good for the target populations, but was essential to avoid communism on the one hand or extreme control of traditional rural society by the very rich landowners on the other. They believed America had a duty, as

2960-548: The early 1960s and 1990s, the Four Asian Tigers underwent rapid industrialisation and maintained exceptionally high growth rates. As of 2018 the international development community ( World Bank , Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) , many United Nations departments, FAO WHO ILO and UNESCO , endorses development policies like water purification or primary education and co-operation amongst third world communities . Some members of

3034-595: The factors that allow societies to sustain stable and peaceful democracies. His work focused on the way in which high levels of socioeconomic development created the preconditions for democracy (see also Amartya Sen 's work), and the consequences of democracy for peace. Lipset's book The First New Nation was a finalist for the National Book Award . He was also awarded the Townsend Harris and Margaret Byrd Dawson Medals for significant achievement,

Modernization theory - Misplaced Pages Continue

3108-440: The ideology was a non-coercive version of the modernization goals of the imperialistic of Britain, France and other European countries in the 19th century. From the 1970s, modernization theory has been criticized by numerous scholars, including Andre Gunder Frank (1929–2005) and Immanuel Wallerstein (1930–2019). In this model, the modernization of a society required the destruction of the indigenous culture and its replacement by

3182-644: The late 1960s opposition to modernization theory developed because the theory was too general and did not fit all societies in quite the same way. Yet, with the end of the Cold War, a few attempts to revive modernization theory were carried out. Francis Fukuyama argued for the use of modernization theory as universal history . A more academic effort to revise modernization theory was that of Ronald Inglehart and Christian Welzel in Modernization, Cultural Change, and Democracy (2005). Inglehart and Welzel amended

3256-528: The left-wing phenomenon. He underlined that extremist ideologies and groups can be classified and analyzed in the same terms as democratic groups, i.e., right, left, and center. Political Man was published and republished in several editions, sold more than 400,000 copies and was translated into 20 languages, including: Vietnamese, Bengali, and Serbo-Croatian. In this 1967 co-authored work with Stein Rokkan , Lipset introduced critical juncture theory and made

3330-464: The liberalization of the middle and lower classes. However, active human rights abuses and constant oppression of Chinese citizens by the government seem to contradict the theory strongly. Interestingly enough, the irony is that increasing restrictions on Chinese citizens are a result of modernization theory. In the 1990s, the Chinese government wanted to reform the legal system and emphasized governing

3404-475: The lower and middle classes changing to more liberal ideas, which went against the CCP. Over time, this has led to their active participation in civil society activities and similar adjacent political groups in order to make their voices heard. Consequently, the Chinese government represses Chinese citizens at a more aggressive rate, all due to modernization theory. Ronald Inglehart and Christian Welzel contend that

3478-440: The mid-20th century adoption of the shipping container . Annual trans-border tourist arrivals rose to 456 million by 1990 and almost tripled since, reaching a total of over 1.2 billion in 2016. Communication is another major area that has grown due to modernization. Communication industries have enabled capitalism to spread throughout the world. Telephony, television broadcasts, news services and online service providers have played

3552-418: The middle class play a crucial role. Proponents of this viewpoint are Charles Boix and Susan C. Stokes. Exogenous democratization, on the other hand, argues that democratization happens as a result of external factors, such as the zeitgeist of pro-democracy political movements seen across the world from the third wave of democratization up until the 1990s. According to Adam Przeworski and Fernando Limongi ,

3626-616: The middle class, which is conducive to democracy. As Seymour Martin Lipset put it, "All the various aspects of economic development—industrialization, urbanization, wealth and education—are so closely interrelated as to form one major factor which has the political correlate of democracy". The argument also appears in Walt W. Rostow , Politics and the Stages of Growth (1971); A. F. K. Organski, The Stages of Political Development (1965); and David Apter , The Politics of Modernization (1965). In

3700-519: The modernised world, computers , cell phones and satellite television, exist alongside stark poverty. Globalists are globalization modernization theorists and argue that globalization is positive for everyone, as its benefits must eventually extend to all members of society, including vulnerable groups such as women and children. President John F. Kennedy (1961–1963) relied on economists W.W. Rostow on his staff and outsider John Kenneth Galbraith for ideas on how to promote rapid economic development in

3774-440: The modernization hypothesis using new data, new techniques, and a three-way, rather than dichotomous, classification of regimes. Contrary to Przeworski, this study finds that the modernization hypothesis stands up well. Partial democracies emerge as among the most important and least understood regime types. Daron Acemoglu and James A. Robinson (2008) further weaken the case for Lipset's argument by showing that even though there

SECTION 50

#1732772427239

3848-640: The most modern country in the world, to promulgate this ideal to the poor nations of the Third World. They wanted programs that were altruistic, and benevolent—and also tough, energetic, and determined. It was benevolence with a foreign policy purpose. Michael Latham has identified how this ideology worked out in three major programs the Alliance for Progress, the Peace Corps, and the strategic hamlet program in South Vietnam. However, Latham argues that

3922-478: The past, and that, therefore, the task of helping the underdeveloped areas out of poverty is to accelerate them along this supposed common path of development, by various means such as investment, technology transfers, and closer integration into the world market. Dependency theory rejected this view, arguing that underdeveloped countries are not merely primitive versions of developed countries, but have unique features and structures of their own; and, importantly, are in

3996-435: The population of towns. The concentration of labour in factories has increased urbanisation and the size of settlements, to serve and house the factory workers. Family structure changes with industrialisation. Sociologist Talcott Parsons noted that in pre-industrial societies there is an extended family structure spanning many generations who probably remained in the same location for generations. In industrialised societies

4070-533: The prospects of democracy. Lipset left the Socialist Party in 1960 and later described himself as a centrist, deeply influenced by Alexis de Tocqueville , George Washington , Aristotle , and Max Weber . He became active within the Democratic Party's conservative wing, and associated with neoconservatives, without calling himself one. Lipset was vice-chair of the board of directors of

4144-590: The purpose of manufacturing . Industrialisation is associated with increase of polluting industries heavily dependent on fossil fuels . With the increasing focus on sustainable development and green industrial policy practices, industrialisation increasingly includes technological leapfrogging , with direct investment in more advanced, cleaner technologies. The reorganisation of the economy has many unintended consequences both economically and socially. As industrial workers' incomes rise, markets for consumer goods and services of all kinds tend to expand and provide

4218-420: The realization of democracy is not based solely on an expressed desire for that form of government, but democracies are born as a result of the admixture of certain social and cultural factors. They argue the ideal social and cultural conditions for the foundation of a democracy are born of significant modernization and economic development that result in mass political participation. Randall Peerenboom explores

4292-494: The reason for the correlation between economic wealth and democracy is for the simple reason that once a country has transitioned to a democratic rule, it has a much better chance of staying democratic if it is wealthy, where as poor countries most often fall back into autocratic rule. Political Man: The Social Bases of Politics (1960) is an influential analysis of the bases of democracy, fascism, communism ("working class authoritarianism"), and other political organizations, across

4366-842: The relationships among democracy, the rule of law and their relationship to wealth by pointing to examples of Asian countries, such as Taiwan and South Korea, which have successfully democratized only after economic growth reached relatively high levels and to examples of countries such as the Philippines , Bangladesh , Cambodia , Thailand , Indonesia and India , which sought to democratize at lower levels of wealth but have not done as well. Adam Przeworski and others have challenged Lipset's argument. They say political regimes do not transition to democracy as per capita incomes rise. Rather, democratic transitions occur randomly, but once there, countries with higher levels of gross domestic product per capita remain democratic. Epstein et al. (2006) retest

4440-415: The section on "Criticisms and alternatives" below), and the theory remained a controversial one. The relationship between modernization and democracy or democratization is one of the most researched studies in comparative politics . Many studies show that modernization has contributed to democracy in some countries. For example, Seymour Martin Lipset argued that modernization can turn into democracy. There

4514-434: The situation of being the weaker members in a world market economy . Another line of critique of modernization theory was due to sociologist Barrington Moore Jr. , in his Social Origins of Dictatorship and Democracy (1966). In this classic book, Moore argues there were at least "three routes to the modern world" - the liberal democratic, the fascist, and the communist - each deriving from the timing of industrialization and

SECTION 60

#1732772427239

4588-715: The social structure at the time of transition. Counter to modernization theory, Moore held that there was not one path to the modern world and that economic development did not always bring about democracy. Political scientist Guillermo O'Donnell , in his Modernization and Bureaucratic Authoritarianism (1973) challenged the thesis, advanced most notably by Seymour Martin Lipset, that industrialization produced democracy. In South America, O'Donnell argued, industrialization generated not democracy, but bureaucratic authoritarianism. Economists Daron Acemoglu and James A. Robinson (2022), argue that modernization theory cannot account for various paths of political development "because it posits

4662-447: The term becomes imprecise and therefore difficult to disprove. The theory has also been criticised empirically, as modernization theorists ignore external sources of change in societies. The binary between traditional and modern is unhelpful, as the two are linked and often interdependent, and "modernization" does not come as a whole. Modernization theory has also been accused of being Eurocentric , as modernization began in Europe, with

4736-585: The transmission of diseases. The place of women in society has shifted from primary caregivers to breadwinners, thus reducing the number of children per household. Furthermore, industrialisation contributed to increased cases of child labour and thereafter education systems. As the Industrial Revolution was a shift from the agrarian society, people migrated from villages in search of jobs to places where factories were established. This shifting of rural people led to urbanisation and an increase in

4810-443: The way poor states are integrated into the " world system ". Dependency models arose from a growing association of southern hemisphere nationalists (from Latin America and Africa) and Marxists. It was their reaction against modernization theory, which held that all societies progress through similar stages of development, that today's underdeveloped areas are thus in a similar situation to that of today's developed areas at some time in

4884-442: The world, in the interwar period and after World War II. One of the important sections is Chapter 2: "Economic Development and Democracy." Larry Diamond and Gary Marks argue that "Lipset's assertion of a direct relationship between economic development and democracy has been subjected to extensive empirical examination, both quantitative and qualitative, in the past 30 years. And the evidence shows, with striking clarity and consistency,

4958-508: Was "a pre-eminent sociologist, political scientist and incisive theorist of American uniqueness"; and The Washington Post said he was "one of the most influential social scientists of the past half century." Lipset was born in Harlem , New York City , the son of Russian Jewish immigrants. He grew up in the Bronx among Irish, Italian and Jewish youth. "I was in that atmosphere where there

5032-477: Was a lot of political talk," Lipset recalled, "but you never heard of Democrats or Republicans; the question was communists, socialists, Trotskyists, or anarchists. It was all sorts of different left wing groups." From an early age, Seymour was active in the Young People's Socialist League , "an organization of young Trotskyists that he would later head." He graduated from City College of New York , where he

5106-1063: Was a strong supporter of the state of Israel, and was President of the American Professors for Peace in the Middle East , chair of the National B'nai B'rith Hillel Commission and the Faculty Advisory Cabinet of the United Jewish Appeal , and co-chair of the Executive Committee of the International Center for Peace in the Middle East. He worked for years on seeking solution for the Israeli–Palestinian conflict as part of his larger project of research on

5180-501: Was accompanied by significant changes in the social structure, the main change being a transition from farm work to factory-related activities. This has resulted in the concept of Social class , i.e., hierarchical social status defined by an individual's economic power. It has changed the family system as most people moved into cities, with extended family living apart becoming more common. The movement into more dense urban areas from less dense agricultural areas has consequently increased

5254-629: Was an anti-Stalinist leftist . He received a PhD in sociology from Columbia University in 1949. Before that he taught at the University of Toronto . Lipset was the Caroline S.G. Munro Professor of Political Science and Sociology at Stanford University and a senior fellow at the Hoover Institution and then became the George D. Markham Professor of Government and Sociology at Harvard University . He also taught at Columbia University,

5328-520: Was named among the top 100 American intellectuals, as measured by academic citations, in Richard Posner 's book, Public Intellectuals: A Study of Decline. One of Lipset's most cited works is "Some Social Requisites of Democracy: Economic Development and Political Legitimacy" (1959), a key work on modernization theory , on democratization , and an article that includes the Lipset hypothesis that economic development leads to democracy. Lipset

5402-409: Was one of the first proponents of the "theory of modernization", which states that democracy is the direct result of economic growth, and that "[t]he more well-to-do a nation, the greater the chances that it will sustain democracy." Lipset's modernization theory has continued to be a significant factor in academic discussions and research relating to democratic transitions . It has been referred to as

5476-615: Was underway in Imperial Germany, for "during these years Germans developed many of the habits and mores that are now thought by political scientists to augur healthy political development". One contemporary problem for modernization theory is the argument of whether modernization implies more human rights for citizens or not. China, one of the most rapidly growing economies in the world, can be observed as an example. The modernization theory implies that this should correlate to democratic growth in some regards, especially in relation to

#238761