Chapter 11 Industrial Societies: Ideologies & Polities
ideologies in
industrial societies
During the last 5
centuries the bounds of human knowledge have expanded enormously. More recently, the natural sciences have
given us a vision of a universe of incredible complexity, whose age is measured
in billions of years and whose size must be expressed in billions of
light-years. And, finally, in the last
100 years, the social sciences have begun the task of demythologizing the social
order, challenging ancient beliefs about the nature of man and subjecting
virtually every aspect of human life to systematic scrutiny (297).
Theistic
Religions
Not surprisingly,
this flood of new information about ourselves and the world we live in has
shaken and unsettled many traditional beliefs, and the institutional systems
based on them. This is especially
evident in the case of theistic religions.
Religious leaders have tried, in many cases, to translate the most
important elements of their traditions into modern terms, while steering a
course between irrelevant orthodoxy and heretical innovation. Although a majority of people in most
industrial societies still profess a belief in God when questioned, a growing
number say they are agnostics or atheists (298).
New Secular
Ideologies
Beginning in 17th and
18th century Europe, a number of new ideologies appeared in which the role of
supernatural beliefs was substantially reduced or totally eliminated. While some of these new ideologies quickly died
out, a number of them not only survived but have prospered in the industrial
era. The most important of these new
faiths are democratic republicanism, capitalism, democratic socialism,
revolutionary socialism (communism), nationalism, and pragmatism (298-299).
Differences among
industrial societies
Because of their
similar technologies and their increasingly pragmatic ideologies, industrial
societies are similar to one another in many ways, as is apparent to anyone who
has traveled among them. There are also,
of course, important differences, and these reflect differences in their
biophysical environments, in their social environments, and in numerous
features of the cultures they have inherited from the past.
The most significant
differences among industrial societies in the 20th century, however, have been
consequences of the new secular ideologies.
As technology has expanded the limits of the possible for these societies
and increased the range of their alternatives, the ideologies that guide them
in choosing among the alternatives and in using their enormous economic
surpluses have become an important source of societal variation (307).
the polities of
industrial societies
A society’s polity is
an institutionalized set of answers to questions about how it should be
governed. The answers to these
questions reflect a society’s dominant ideology (308).
The Democratic
Trend
Prior to the IR,
nearly all large and powerful nations were monarchies governed by hereditary
kings and emperors. Today, the older
view of government has disappeared, especially in industrial societies. This change not only includes the
introduction of contested elections and the formation of political parties that
mobilize the masses of people in support of particular leaders and policies,
but most importantly the exercise of the powers of government to benefit the
masses of ordinary people in countless ways (309).
Democracy as a
Variable
Governments differ by
degree in their practice of democracy, and the degree of democracy in a given
society often changes over time. Thus,
we need to think of democracy as a variable like other societal
characteristics, such as population size or economic productivity (309).
Causes of the
Democratic Trend
The tremendous
strength and appeal of democratic ideology have been among the more remarkable
characteristics of the industrial era.
For the most part, these seem to be the same forces that gave rise to
all the major new ideologies of the industrial era–the Protestant Reformation,
the conquest of the New World, and, most important, the IR. Protestantism appears to have been
especially significant in the early rise and spread of democratic beliefs and
values (310).
Mass Political
Parties
The growth of
democracy and the rise of industrial societies have produced a totally new kind
of political organization, the mass political party, which serves to mobilize
public opinion in support of political programs and candidates. Party organizations differ in several
respects but fall into 3 groups.
1. Some,
such as the Republican and Democratic in the US, are largely pragmatic
brokerage-type parties. They have no
strong ideological commitments and no well-defined political programs (312).
2. In
contrast to brokerage-type parties, many of which were formed in the 19th
century, political parties in the 20th century have often had strong
ideological commitments.
3. Finally,
religious groups in western Europe and Japan have formed of number of political
parties (313).
Experience has taught
professional politicians that parties which remain ideologically pure are
likely to remain numerically small and politically weak, except in times of
crises. A more recent development in
party organization in industrial societies has been the formation of Green
parties by environmentally concerned groups (313).
Special Interest
Groups
The industrial
democracies are made up of a great variety of groups, each with its own special
interests. One of the more difficult
problems facing democratic societies today is that of protecting the interests
of society as a whole against the claims and demands of these special
interests. Paradoxically, it is far
easier for politicians to rally support for programs that offer special favors
to limited interests groups than for programs designed to promote the common
good. Interest groups vary greatly in
their ability to influence public policy, and their success is largely a
function of their political and economic resources (315).
The Mass Media
One of the most
important developments of the industrial era has been the emergence of the mass
media as a major political force, not only in industrial societies, but in
other societies as well. The rise of
the media to their present position of influence and power is the result of a
succession of technological breakthroughs.
Although the media elite lack the power themselves to enact legislation,
they are able, in large measure, to set the agenda for elected officials. In other words, they are able to make it all
but impossible for elected officials to ignore those issues which they deem to
be of primary concern. This is because
journalists are gatekeeper who control the flow of information within a
society. Because of this power, the
media elite have considerable influence over the public’s perception of what
the problems confronting society, and requiring political action, actually are
(316-317).
Political
Conflict and Stability
Every social system
generates internal conflict, and industrial societies are no exception. Nevertheless, their success in channeling
such conflict into nonviolent forms is remarkable. There are a number of reasons for the political stability of the
western industrial democracies. First,
their greater productivity and their higher standards of living give the
majority of the population a vested interest in political stability. Second, a democratic ideology strengthens
the allegiance of most segments of the population to their government and
weakens support for revolutionary movements.
Finally, since the complexity of industrial societies means that each
individual simultaneously fills a number of different roles and often belongs
to a variety of groups, people who are opponents in one controversy are often
allies in another (318-319).
Although political
conflicts are restrained in industrial societies, they are still present in
various forms and involve a wide range of issues. The most common type of conflict is between economic classes and,
in most democratic nations, this has become the basic framework for partisan
politics (319).
The Growth of
Government
Apart from the rise
of democracy, the most important political change associated with
industrialization has been the growth of government. The rage of activities and the diversity of functions performed
by government are far greater in modern industrial societies than in any other
type of society. Many of the new
functions of government arise because they are required by an industrial system
(320).
In the western
industrial democracies, much of the growth of government reflects the influence
of 2 important developments noted earlier:
(1) the rise of democracy and
(2) movement away from pure laissez-faire capitalism toward a mixed economy (321).
Governmental Bureaucracies: Their Expansion & Transformation
One of the best
measures of the growth of government is the size of its bureaucracy. The great growth in the powers of
governments and the size of their bureaucracies has made top administrative
officials extremely powerful figures in industrial societies. Government offices are no longer private
property to be bought and sold and inherited by one’s children. Rather, the tend to be assigned
competitively on the basis of education and experience. Furthermore, in the exercise of the office,
officials are expected to act on the basis of the public interest rather than
of private advantage (322-323).
In large measure, the
explanation for the change lies in the newer ideologies, which assert that the
powers of government are derived from the people and should therefore be used
for their benefit. One of the chief
problems of bureaucracies is to maintain a sense of public responsibility in
their personnel (323).