Political Modernization

• It is not very easy to give a precise meaning of term political modernization.

• However, the term is generally used to refer to changes in political attitudes
and the transformation of political institutions.
• It is the process of transmutation of a traditional political system into a
modern system.
• In the West, changes in political culture and political institutions occurred
over a long period, resulting in the development and performance standards
through the rational utilization of resources.
• Modern society, as it emerged in the West, is characterized by science and
technology, social interdependence, urbanization, literacy, social mobility
etc.
• In politics, modernization referred to the transition from the traditional
political system to the modern democratic system.
• The modernization approach in comparative politics can be
traced to the evolutionary explanations of the social change in
19th century Europe.
• The French philosophers and founders of modern sociology
Auguste Comte and Emile Durkheim, the British philosopher
Herbert Spencer, Max Weber and Karl Marx, gave different
explanations of the transformation from pre-industrial to
industrial society
 Industrialization, democracy and modernization
• Modernization acts as a catalyst in the process of the democratization of societies.
• As discussed above, societies have become more rationalized and secularised in the process
of modernization.
• Industrialization incorporated the division of labour, which led to massive production,
leading to economic development.
• Economic prosperity creates room for democratization as economic freedom creates
pressure on the political system for political freedom and rights.
• The industrial revolution gave stimulus to capitalism, which created a business class.
• The business class wants more control on taxation and property rights and is hard-pressed
for a representative, limited and accountable government.
• Thus rationalization, secularisation and industrialization resulted in democratization.
• Substantive democracy focuses on creating an environment for the involvement of all
sections of the society in the democratic processes.
 Political modernization approach
• Political modernization means the discarding of feudal and traditional structures
and cultures.
• It is also becoming free from religion and church domination by establishing
secular political authority.
• It is the process of transforming the traditional political system into a modern one.
• Change in political culture and political institutions has led to the development
and improved performance standards.
• Political modernization has played a vital role in democracy, industrialization and
economic growth in the contemporary global world.
• The political modernization approach has explained the political outcomes and
processes in the political systems.
 Political Culture
• Political culture is defined by Almond and Verba as the psychological dispositions of
individuals:
• Attitudes towards the political system and its various parts, and attitudes towards the
role of the self in the system.
• These attitudes yield three orientations:
• (i) cognitive,
• (ii) affective, and
• (iii) evaluative.
• These refer, respectively, to individuals' knowledge of the system, their feelings
towards it and their judgement of it.
• For Almond and Verba, political culture is to be regarded as a set of individual
psychological states which can be revealed through survey questionnaires.
• From their definition of political culture, Almond and Verba move on to consider its
role within the political process.
 Political culture and political system
• A country's political system includes its political culture.
• the maintenance or change in the system is linked in some way to its culture.
• 'One must assume’, that the attitudes or some significant relationship to the way
the political system operates - to its stability, effectiveness and so forth lie behind.
• For example, Britain's balance between diversity and consensual, rationalism and
traditionalism' made possible the development of British democracy.
• Political culture is viewed as a cross between a catalyst and a fertilizer, providing
the conditions for change and sustaining the product of that change.
• More uninterestingly, political culture forms the context and environment for
political action.
• The participant political culture is the type of political culture that is corresponding
with a democratic political structure and the same has been called by them as
‘Civic Culture’.
 Civic Culture and Political Culture
• Modern use of the concept “political culture” is traceable to the
work of Gabriel Almond and Sidney Verba titled “The Civic Culture”.
• The study represented a classic comparative analysis of political
attitudes and democracy in five countries.
• The essence was to demonstrate how cultural development and
political development move in tandem.
• Political culture according to Marshall refers to “the norms, values
and symbols that help to legitimize the political power system of a
society”
 McLean and McMillan
• Defined political culture as:
• The attitudes, beliefs and values, which underpin the operation
of a particular political system.
• These were seen as including knowledge, and skill about the
operation of the political system, positive and negative feelings
towards it, and evaluative judgments about the system.
• The definitions emphasized the importance of the orientation
of members of society towards the basic and essential element
of the political system.
• Thus, positive orientations that generate norms, values, beliefs
and attitudes that are supportive of the political power system
is basic to political culture.
• In other words, effective political socialization breeds enduring
political culture.
 Political socialization performs the following functions:
• Shapes and transmits a nation’s political culture.
• Maintains society’s political culture from one generation to the
other.
• Has the capacity to transform the population or part of it, to
view and experience politics in different dimensions.
• Rapid changes or extraordinary events have the capacity to
generate political culture even where none existed (through
cultural diffusion).
 Political Socialization
• Socialization is “the process by which individuals learn the culture of their society”
• Culture itself is “the totality of learned, socially transmitted customs, knowledge,
material objects and behaviour. It includes ideas, values and artifacts of groups of
people”.
• Extrapolating from this definition, political socialization refers to “the process of
induction into a political system”
• Referred to political socialization inter- alia: …the long development process by which
an infant (even adult) citizen learns, imbibes and indeed internalizes the political
culture (core political values, beliefs, norms and ideology) of his political system so as
to make meaning of the world around him.
• Political socialization is a process by which political ideas of any given society are
internalized and transmitted from one generation to the other.
• In other words, political socialization is the vehicle through which political culture
emerges.
• Political socialization process simply entails the inculcation of a society’s political
culture in members of society and the transmission of such from one generation to
the other.
• Thus, individuals, groups or institutions that affect people’s self-concepts, attitudes,
behaviors or other orientations are referred to as agents of socialization.
• The political parties are the major agents of political socialization in modern
democratic governance.
• The political party is defined as: An organized group of citizens of a state with similar
views, ideas and ideology which they consider to be fundamental to the political
system and good governance.
• The main purpose of political party is to contest elective political offices with a view to
form government
 Political Parties functions
• Political parties apart from carrying on the task of political
socialization also perform the functions of:
• Interest articulation
• Interest aggregation
• Building political culture
• Political education
• Political leadership recruitment etc
 Interest Aggregation and Political socialization
• Political parties perform interest aggregation through the filtering of
divergent views and opinion of the people and articulating them in
such a manner that they can be presented for consideration as public
policy.
• Another important function of the political parties is the use of
political socialization and education to build enduring political
culture.
• In Western advanced democracies, political parties encourage
positive orientations that generate norms, values, beliefs and
attitudes that are supportive of the political power system.