The Modernization Imperative (Modernisation Imperative) (Societas) [Paperback]

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.

This book argues that contemporary society in Western democracies is generally misunderstood. Commentators typically assume that we still live in a ‘pyramidal’ hierarchical state that is dominated either directly by the government, or indirectly by capitalist economics. It is assumed that social cohesion is imposed on the population by a combination of force and propaganda. Such widespread views contribute to a pessimistic attitude to the present and a fearful attitude to the future, yet neither view is correct.

The reality is that 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 between them. Modernizing societies are therefore structured more like a mosaic than a pyramid.

The principal defining feature of modernizing societies is the tendency for permanent growth in the adaptive complexity of the social systems. Systems demonstrate ever-greater specialization of functions and progressively increasing outputs — for example the trends for more division of labour and continued growth in the economy. Functional specialization is a consequence of the potential for more complex systems to be more efficient. Social cohesion is therefore an emergent consequence of a circular ‘scissors–rock–paper’ mutual influence between social systems. In order to function, each system relies upon other systems to function. Growth in one system depends on growth in others. Interdependence elicits the mechanisms that maintain cohesion.

Growth in complexity is shaped by selection processes which maintain the functionality of social systems. The best known example of selection is the self-adjusting market economy, but other paradigm cases include science and democratic politics. All these selected social systems rely on generating a surplus of variants (e.g. economic goods, scientific theories or political parties), which are subjected to a process of competition, by which some system variants are amplified and others suppressed. Selection processes have great power since they are capable of self-correction, learning and creative discovery of new solutions.

The process of modernization is both inevitable and, on the whole, a good thing. Modernization is very highly probable because modernizing societies are more powerful than ‘traditional’ societies, and it is preferable to the alternatives because modernizing societies are better and more hopeful places to live for most of the population, most of the time. The combination of necessity and desirability constitutes the modernization imperative.

Making the best of modernization requires a more accurate understanding of its nature and processes than exists currently. Understanding should lead to a more optimistic and confident attitude towards the future. Societies that are able to seize the modernization imperative will be those with potential to reap the most benefits while minimizing the inevitable disadvantages.

The proper question should not be whether society should modernize, but how.