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Modernization Theory and the Problem of Historical Time

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Modernization Theory and the Problem of Historical Time ТЕОРИЯ И МЕТОДОЛОГИЯ ИСТОРИЧЕСКИХ ИССЛЕДОВАНИЙ M. Peltonen DOI: 10.7256/2222-1972.2013.3.9056 Modernization Theory and the Problem of Historical Time Annotation: The paper tries to assess the meaning of historical time in the framew ork of the modernisation theory . Historical time is a difficult concept (as are all concepts of time), because it is used implicitly and differs from physical time and calendar time. The notions of historical time are often discussed as periodisation and use quite abstract labels for long periods of time (e.g. Middle Ages, Modern Times). The paper considers important and changing ideas about the qualitative characteristics of various periods of time and of the transitions between them. Key words: Modernization theory, historical time, modern society, industrialization, World-Economy. ntroduction. Soon after the Second W orld War was reinvented in modernisation theory as only one im- a new social science theory emerged in the portant qualitative change in modern society, which is United States. 1 It gained a hegemonic position the change in society fr om traditional to modern. Sec- in Western social thinking for the following de- ond, the other important idea that was given up was the Icades until at least the 1970s. And some of its basic as- notion of a qualitative change in the history of capital- sumptions proved even more enduring. Her e I try to ism ( e.g. the German discussion of modern capitalism assess the meaning of modernisation theory on how at the beginning of the 20th century or Lenin’s theory we think of historical time. Historical time is a difficult of imperialism as the last stage of capitalism). Instead concept (as are all concepts of time), because it is used of discussing capitalism the creators of modernisation implicitly. 2 F or me it means collectiv e ideas about theory explain the natur e or quality of our society or time that differ from physical time and calendar time. our (Western) civilization. Often we discuss notions of historical time as periodi- sation and use quite abstract labels for long periods There are also tw o other aspects that should be of time (e.g. Middle Ages, the Renaissance, Modern taken up in an intr oduction to modernisation theory . Times). In addition, we have important and changing Some of the central concepts w ere taken fr om biol- ideas about the qualitativ e characteristics of various ogy (especially the concepts of dev elopment ( entwick- periods of time and of the transitions between them. lung) and gr owth). 3 Development and gr owth are usu- Modernisation theory changed some basic ideas ally thought to be natural or at least deterministic pr o- about historical time that had been pr evalent in social cesses. Societies ar e seen in this w ay as some kind of sciences and history. First, the idea that ther e are sev- organism. Something happens because there is a kind eral stages in the historical development of societies or of “natural law” making it happen. The biologically fla- civilizations was given up. The popular theory of stages voured concept of dev elopment did not sit w ell with an older view of also including periods of decline in 1 See e.g. Michael E. Latham: Modernization as Ideology: American the concept of historical time. 4 Another important fea- Social Science and “Nation Building” in the Kennedy Era. Chapel Hill & London: The University of North Carolina Press 2000 on the use ture is the fate of Max Weber, whose thinking was trans- of the modernization theory in American foreign policy and Nils formed in the late 1930s and 1940s in the United States Gilman: Mandarins of the Future. Modernization Theory in Cold War by American sociologists in order to support the theory America. Baltimore and London: The Johns Hopkins University of modernisation. Weber as one of the grand theorists Press 2003 on the academic background of modernization theory in United States; and Harry Harootunian: The Empire’s New Clothes. Paradigm Lost, and Regained. Chicago: Prickly Paradigm Press 3 On the metaphor of growth see, e.g. Robert A. Nisbet: Social 2004 on a more critical perspective on the use of the modernization Change and History. Aspects of the Western Theory of Development. theory. London etc: Oxford University Press 1969. 2 Johannes Fabian starts his Time and the Other. How Anthropology 4 The concept of decline had been important in the history of Makes Its Object (New York: Columbia University Press 1983) with empires since Edward Gibbon’s The History of the Decline and Fall these conceptual problems of time. of the Roman Empire (1776–1788). © NOTA BENE (ООО «НБ-Медиа») 247 Исторический журнал: научные исследования № 3 (15) · 2013 of Western social science was supposed to guarantee sonality structure among the members of social elites. the quality of thinking in modernisation theory. 5 At this point it is often referred to Max Weber and New Ideas about Historical Time. The division of the famous Weber-thesis about the Protestant Ethic the history of human societies into two periods, tra- as offering an ideal starting point for modernisation. ditional and modern society, is the most important On this reasoning, however, the leap from individual idea in modernisation theory. Traditional societies level to the level of society is usually left unexplained include the lost civilizations of India and China or and it is taken for granted that methodological indi- ancient Egypt, the tribal societies of the Amazon or vidualism is accepted without criticism. 7 The expla- the Pacific Ocean, and the older phases of our own nation that starts from an emerging new personality societies. Traditional societies are somehow outside structure is not explaining by way of new cultural phe- history; they experience only cyclical time, while in nomena as the prime mover of social change, because modern societies the experience of time is based on the new structure of personality is thought to be the continuous development or progress – we are con- key to social change. 8 Second, during the modern stantly progressing towards a certain goal or fulfill- period there are no important qualitative changes in ing a previously announced purpose. This is not a society, because the Industrial Revolution (and the totally new idea. For instance, the cultural history of further development of industry) is thought to be the Jacob Burckhardt in 1860 was based on an assump- prime mover of history. This is, however, quite un- tion of a basic change in the structure of the mind of satisfactory to most observers of social change, and Western Man during the Renaissance. A similar idea all kinds of qualitative changes are suggested for the was hidden in comparisons between the so-called analysis of modernity including, e.g., postmodernity Naturvölker (Savages) and ourselves by nineteenth and globalisation. There seems to be a need to discov- century philosophers. Civilizations still living in er one modernity after another. Third, several found- oral culture without widespread literacy were living ing fathers of modernisation theory had dreams of “outside history” (because they did not have written developing a unified social science around the idea history). 6 In modernisation theory these ideas were of modernization. I mention this minor aspect of elevated to a fundamental position, as something on modernisation theory to take note of one of the fail- which we ground our basic conceptions of human ures of modernisation, which, however, has been the history. And they were also extended to cover the dream of some of its critics, as well (e.g. such theorists past of our own society. as Fernand Braudel or Immanuel Wallerstein). There is a second new idea about historical time Modernisation Theory and Historiography. The first in modernisation theory concerning the modern era social sciences to propose versions of the modernisa- of societies. Differences between modern societies are tion theory were political science and sociology. But basically similarities because, in spite of existing at the soon also historians started to participate. Two ex- same point in calendar time, societies can be thought amples can be highlighted: the American economic to occupy different positions in the same “develop- historian W. W. Rostow and the British social historian ment curve” or “life-course”. This idea concerning Peter Laslett. the difference of historical time at the same point of W. W. Rostow’s Stages of Economic Gr owth (1960) calendar time has some fundamental preconditions. is perhaps the most famous analysis of the moderni- It is based on the independence of development in sation process from the historical point of view. This different societies, which are not dependent on each book is (almost) the endpoint of a longer period of other in any meaningful way. There is, however, one work devoted to developing a new theory of develop- important exception, the development aid that mod- ment. One fundamental aspect of Rostow’s thinking ern societies can give to those still prevailing in the tra- was using Max Weber’s ideas as a basis, although We- ditional stage. ber is not mentioned in the final volume of his proj- These assumptions of historical time are based ect. The popularity of Rostow’s ideas is based on the on principles that are important from the point of fact that his famous contribution came so late to the view of history theory. First, modernisation theory is discussion; by then the basic ideas of modernisation based on an idealistic explanation. The change from theory were already familiar to everyone. Rostow could traditional to modern society starts with a new per- be seen as someone who developed the idea further, as 5 Matti Peltonen: ”The Weber Thesis and Economic Historians”.
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