The Rate and Costs of Political Development

Abstract

Capacity to direct the rate and course of change in modern times demands more than adding increments of power, substance, or efficiency. The revolution of moderniza tion is the first revolution of mankind to set a new price upon stability in any system of society—namely, it requires an en during capacity to generate and absorb persistent transforma tion. This era is marked above all by rapidly growing imbal ances in rates of change among crucial social forces. The multiplication of these uncontrolled forces of change is one of the main reasons why the cost of modernization increases as time passes. Ideology can be a major instrument in creating a new political culture. Based upon a theory of social change, such ideology is an explicit framework of means and ends ca pable of stimulating policy-oriented analysis, inspiring action, and constituting the normative and practical touchstone of ac complishments. A discussion of alternative costs of failing and succeeding in modernization leads to the conclusion that for most nations, success will depend on the capacity of interna tional society to deal with system transformations.