Mid-American Review of Sociology OAKTOWN UNIONTOWN CONSENSUS, CONFLICT, AND INTERNATIONAL TABLE IX: Prestige values cited TABLE X: Prestige values cited STRATIFICATION THEO'RIES OF MODERNI'ZATION: by sex: by sex: AN EVALUATION Value Category Value Category A BC D E Total A BC D E Total WILLIAM C. LANE Boys 18% 45% 16% 8% 13% 11% 45% 8% 4% 32% Kansas State University Sex 28 71 26 15 20 160 14 55 10 5 39 123 Girls 12% 52% 22% 10% 4% 10% 72% 9% 4% 5% Mid-American Review of Sociology, 1976, Vol. 1, No. 2:19-32 30 133 57 26 9 255 25 172 21 9 13 240 Total 141 49% 20% 10% 7% 11% 62% 9% 4% 14% ABSTRACT 58 204 83 41 29 415 39 227 31 14 52 363 This paper reviews two of the maier sociological theories of modemization, OAKTOWN UNIONTOWN the consensus and conflict perspectives. These two theories are used to analyze some aspects of the economic and political situation in Chile. The international TABLE XI: Prestige values cited TABLE XII: Prestige values cited stratification approach is then presented as a third theory. Based upon criteria by the leading crowd by the leading crowd developed during the critique ofthe consensus and conflict theories, it is argued members in each grade: members in each grade: that the intemational stratification paradigm offers a synthesis of these two Value Category Value Category approaches which may be able to fulfill the requirements for a comprehensive A B C DE Total A B C D E Total sociologicaltheory of modernization. 8 141 53% 0% 13% 20% 0% 67% 0% 11% 22% 2 8 0 2 .3 15 0 6 0 1 2 9 From the classical period to the present sociologists have been con­ 9 17% 50% 11% 11% 11% 0% 55% 11% 11% 22% cerned with social change and development. Comte, Spencer and others, 3 9 2 2 2 18 0 5 1 1 2 9 under the influence of Darwin, were particularly concerned with social Grade 10 15% 69% 8% 8% 0% 10% 57% 5% 4% 25% progress. Social progress has been defined as "attempts to trace the evo­ 2 9 1 1 0 13 2 12 1 1 5 21 lution of specific social forms or entire societies from some earlier, less ~ 11 0% 65% 18% 12% 6% 17% 83% 0% 0% 0% advanced state to a terminal, advanced state .. ." (Apelbaum, 1970:18). 0 11 3 2 1 17 1 5 0 0 0 6 While sociologists no longer discuss social progress, they are concerned 12 0% 73% 27% 0% 0% 0% 100% 0% 0% 0% with development and, the more inclusive process, modernization. This 0 8 3 0 0 11 0 3 0 0 0 3 interest in modernization became an urgent area of study at the end of Total 9% 62% 12% 9% 8% the Second World War as a result of the changing international situation, particularly in relationship to the colonial countries (Bernstein, 1971). 7 45 9 7 6 75.. 3 31 2 3 9 48 o The percentages in all tables were rounded oH to the nearest point. This paper examines two general approaches to the sociology of Thus, the sums may exceed 100% in some cases. modernization, the consensus' and conflicttheories, The work of Smelser" and Marx will be examined as important and representative examples of BIBLIOGRAPHY each of the respective theories. Data on social change in Chile is then Bonjean, Charles M., Richard J. Hill and S. Dale McLemore used to examine the explanatory abilities of each theory. The interna­ 1967 Sociological Measuremeni (Chandler, San Francisco). tional stratification approach, an alternative model to the conflict and Coleman, James S. consensus models, will be discussed. Based upon the evaluation of each 1961 The Adolescent Society (Free Press of Glencoe, New York). Gordon, C. Wayne of these approaches, some requirements for a sociological theory of 1957 The Social System of the High School (Free Press, Glencoe, Ill.), modernization will be presented. Hollingshead, A. B. 1949 Elmtown~s Youth (J. Wiley, New York). 18 19 Mid-American Review of Sociology Theories of Modernization THE SOCIOLOGY OF MODERNIZATION The conflict model views society as a "continually contested political The terms modernization and development have been used in a struggle between groups with opposing goals and world views" (Horton, variety of ways in the literature. The term development frequently 1966:704). Horton (1966:704) continues by stating that 'Corder follows refers to economic development (Kim, 1973:462). When used in this from the conditions of social organization and not from the state of mann~r development implies, according to Baran (1973:386), "a far­ cultural integration. Whereas the consensus model is geared toward the reaching transformation of society's economic, social, and political struc­ maintenance of social institutions, the conflict model reflects a positive ture, and of the dominant organization of production, distribution, and attitude toward change. While the conflict approach questions the legiti­ consumption." macy of existing normative structures, the consensus model accepts them The term modernization has been used in a similar and sometimes as the standards around which society stabilizes (Horton, 1966:705). interchangeable, manner to development. Eisenstadt (i966:1) has de­ Conflict theory has it roots in the works of Marx, with Dahrendorf and fined modernization as: Frank as contemporary examples. · · · the process of change towards those types of social, economic Dahrendorf (1973:105) has summarized the basic underlying assump­ and political systems that have developed in Western Europe and tions of the structural-functional and conflict theories of social change. North America from the seventeenth century to the nineteenth and The summary focuses attention upon the most fundamental criticism of have then spread to other European countries and in the nineteenth the consensus model: How can a model which emphasizes maintenance and twentieth centuries to the South American, Asian, and African of the social system, integration, the functional importance of each ele­ continents. ment in society, and consensus account for social ehangef" In a somewhat similar fashion, Moore (1963:89) defines modernization Consensus Model Conflict Model as "a total transformation of a traditional or pre-modern society into the 1. Every society is a relatively per­ 1. Every society is subjected at type of technology and associated social organization that characterizes sisting configuration of ele­ every moment to change. the ... stable nations of the Western World." ments. 2. Every society experiences at While it is clear that the terms development and modernization have 2. Every society is a well inte­ every moment social conflicts. been used in a variety of ways, modernization appears to be a more grated configuration of ele­ 3. Every element in a society con­ ~clus~ve concept.. Modernization- will be defined as "a general process ments. tributes to its change. involving economic along with social and cultural development" (Lauer, 3. Every element in a society con­ 4. Every society rests on the con­ 1973:210). Using this definition, modernization may be thought of as a tributes to its functioning. straint of some of its members process which includes the phenomenon of development. The term 4. Every society rests on the con­ development will only be used to refer to economic development.! sensus of its members. by others. For the consensus theorist, rebellion is equated" with alienation, while CONSENSUS AND CONFLICT .THEORIES th~ori~s s~ci'~'~ ~cc~s ~ s~~t~~ ~f' ~ction conformity is equated with equilibrium (Horowitz, 1972b:493). Horo..­ _. 'Consensus' conceptualize unified witz (1972b: 487), in contrasting the two theories, places this fundamental at the most general level by shared culture, by agreement on values (or criticism into perspective. at least on modes) of communication and political organization" (Horton, In short, consensus differs from conflict as organization differs 1~6:70:4).2 The model reflects, according to Horton (1966:705), a "posi­ from deviance. Thus to discuss social structure is by definition tioe atutude toward the maintenance of social institutions/' with a con­ not to examine conflict situations and, of course, to examine con­ ceptualizat!on. of society that stresses balance, stability, order, authority, flict situations is to discuss something extraneous to social structure. and quantitative growth or moving equilibrium. The consensus model This recurring controversy over the degree of prominence accorded con­ is synonymous with structural-functionalism, as reflected in the work of flict as a factor in social organization and change (Hobbs, 1971:65) will Parsons, Eisenstadt, and Smelser. continue to be examined throughout the paper. 20 21 Mid-American Review of Sociology Theories of Modernization Consensus Model of Modernization that gives rise to them" they understand the necessity of colonialism within the wider scheme of things (Avineri, 1969:185). This scheme may be summarized as follows: One example of a contemporary conflict theory of modernization is 1. Differentiation characterizes a social structure that is moving that of Frank (1967). Frank contends that underdevelopment in Latin toward greater complexity (modernization). American countries, such as Chile, "is the product of four centuries of 2. Integration balances the divisive character of differentiation capitalist development and of the internal contradictions of capitalism but may also work to increase differentiation. itself' (Frank, 1967:3). According to Frank (1967:3): 3. Social disturbances result from the discontinuities between ... capitalist contradictions and the historical development of differentiation and integration. (Smelser, 1968) the capitalist system have generated underdevelopment in the peripheral satellites whose economic surplus was expropriated, This sequence may recur, always establishing a new level of integration while generating economic development in the metropolitan cen­ (Hobbs,1971:241). Smelser's theory of modernization is therefore clearly ters which appropriate that surplus-and, further, that this process evolutionary and Durkheimian in nature.