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Charlton, Bruce

The Modernization Imperative

Charlton, Bruce - The Modernization Imperative, ebook

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Ebook, ePUB with Adobe DRM
ISBN: 9781845406738
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This book argues that contemporary society in Western democracies is generally misunderstood to be a pyramidal hierarchy dominated either by government or the economy. Neither view is correct.
We live in a fundamentally pluralistic society divided into numerous ‘modular’ social systems each performing different functions; these include politics, public administration, the armed forces, law, economics, religion, education, health and the mass media. Because each is specialized, none of these systems are dominant and there is no overall hierarchy of power. Modernizing societies are therefore structured more like a mosaic than a pyramid.
Modernization is the tendency for growth in the adaptive complexity and efficiency of the social systems. Growth in complexity is shaped by selection processes which maintain the functionality of social systems. The best examples are the market economy, science and democratic politics.
The process of modernization is both inevitable and, on the whole, desirable: this constitutes the modernization imperative. Therefore, the proper question should not be whether society should modernize, but how.

Keywords: Democracy, society, hierarchy, government, economy, politics, public administration, law, armed forces, economics, religion, education, health, mass media, modernization, modernisation, social systems, adaptive complexity, efficiency, science, market economy, democratic politics, social cohesion, economism, social progress, morality, environmentalism, systems theory

Author(s)
Publisher
Andrews UK
Publication year
2017
Language
en
Edition
2
Imprint
Imprint Academic
Series
Societas
Page amount
94 pages
Category
Society
Format
Ebook
eISBN (ePUB)
9781845406738
Printed ISBN
9780907845522

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