What is the rise of industrial civilization?

In 1950s, a group of American sociologists, economists and political scientists conducted modernization studies one after another. 195 1 In June, we discussed poverty, unbalanced economic development and other issues at the academic seminar organized by the editorial department of the academic journal Cultural Change sponsored by the Economic Growth Committee of the American Social Science Research Association. Participants believe that it is more appropriate to use the word "modernization" to explain the transformation from an agricultural society to an industrial society. From 65438 to 0958, Daniel Lerner published The Disappearance of Traditional Society: Modernization in the Middle East, arguing that the transformation from traditional society to modern society is modernization. 1959, the Comparative Political Committee of the American Social Science Research Association held a seminar on political modernization, and then published Politics in Developing Areas (almond and Coleman, 1960).

In 1960s, a number of influential modernization monographs were published in the West, and the modernization theory was basically formed. For example, The Stages of Economic Growth: Declaration of Non-* * Productivism (Rostow, 1960), Political Modernization in Japan and Turkey (Ward and Rasto, 1964), Modernization and Social Structure (Levi, 1966) and Modernization. 1966), modernization: the driving force of growth (wiener, 1966), changing the political order in society (Huntington, 1968), etc. In the 1970s and 1980s, the modernization theory faced many challenges, and at the same time, it developed in an all-round way, forming a colorful modernization theory.

Western scholars have carried out modernization research for 50 years (1950s-1990s), and finally formed a theoretical system of modernization. Although this theory has many inherent defects, it has been criticized. For example, it cannot explain the development of developed industrial countries since 1970s. However, it is still regarded as a powerful theory to explain the revolutionary changes of human civilization since the industrial revolution, and no other social science theory can completely replace it. We might as well call it the classical modernization theory.

Classical modernization theory is not a single theory, but a general term for the theoretical achievements of modernization research by different fields and scholars. Modernization has different characteristics in different fields and regions (Table 1-2). According to the classification of research fields, the classical modernization theory can be divided into political modernization, economic modernization, social modernization, personal modernization and cultural modernization theory.

Attached Table 1-2 Main Features of Classical Modernization in Different Fields

Territorial scope

Main point

Political modernization

Democratization, rule of law, bureaucracy (bureaucracy)

Economic modernization

Industrialization, specialization and scale

Social modernization

Urbanization, Welfare, Mobility and Information Dissemination

Personal modernization

Openness, participation, independence and equality

Cultural modernization

Secularization of religion, rationalization of thought, economism and popularization of primary and secondary education

Although in the classical modernization theory, different fields and scholars have different interpretations of modernization, it is generally believed that modernization has two basic connotations, which are basically consistent with the basic meaning of modernization.

(1) refers to16th century, especially the profound changes that have taken place in developed countries since the industrial revolution;

(2) refers to the development process in which developing countries catch up with the advanced world level in different fields.

Modernization is a historical process, including the transformation from traditional economy to modern economy, from traditional society to modern society, from traditional politics to modern politics, and from traditional civilization to modern civilization. In the forties and sixties of last century, developed countries in Europe and America had completed the industrialization process and entered a highly developed modern industrial society. Developing countries have not completed the industrialization process, and are still in the traditional agricultural society, and some areas are even in the primitive society. Therefore, in the classical modernization theory, modernization can be summarized as one sentence: the historical process of agricultural economy to industrial economy, agricultural society to industrial society, and agricultural civilization to industrial civilization is modernization.

According to the classical modernization theory, modernization is not only a historical process, but also a state of development, which can refer to the state in which developing countries catch up with developed countries (the state after completing the modernization process) or the state in which developed countries reach the world advanced level. Because people have different understandings of the world's advanced level, the highly developed industrial society has many disadvantages and the society is developing constantly, so the debate about modernization continues.

At present, there are many different views on modernization. In fact, they are all different expressions of the above definition, but the focus of different viewpoints is different. Mr. Luo Rongqu, an expert on modernization in China and a late professor in Peking University, summed up the explanations of modernization by scholars all over the world in his book "A New Theory of Modernization". He thinks: ①: "From a historical perspective, in a broad sense, modernization, as a worldwide historical process, refers to a drastic change experienced by human society since the Industrial Revolution. This change is driven by industrialization, which has led to the transformation of the world from a traditional agricultural society to a modern industrial society. She let industrialism permeate the economy and economy. ..... As a concrete process of the recent historical development of mankind, it may be appropriate to regard the realization of a highly developed industrial society as a major symbol of the completion of modernization. "