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Struggling for theory building in the social sciences. The impact of modernization on democratization - Theory building in the social sciences is a precarious undertaking. However, a gradually refined approach that is kept under rigorous control can produce results that are at the same time faithful to the complexity of social reality and relevant to policy. How this can be done is illustrated by discussing the literature dealing with the impact of modernization on democratization. It is shown that Peter Flora’s (1974) suggestion still holds : the general problems raised by modernization and the possible chances for democracy shaped by modernization should be analytically separated from the range of specific solutions (democracy being one of them) out of which societies actually choose. A scanning of the literature starting from this perspective gradually refines the relation between modernization and democracy. At the most general level the simple ’evolutionist hypothesis’ can be rejected by a combination of quantitative and qualitative evidence. The alternative seems to be that modernization is best understood as a range of partly homogenizing, partly society-specific processes of differentiation between political and societal structures, increase of capabilities and subsystem autonomy. These processes are homogenizing insofar as they tend to create conditions at least theoretically favourable to democracy : a certain level of economic development, a relatively egalitarian income distribution, social and cultural pluralism, a free market, a tolerant culture, a pervasion of democratic ideology. They are society-specific insofar as they enable societies to select and incorporate some modernization characteristics while ignoring others. A democratic regime is only one possible type of modern society. A potentially powerful approach for analyzing the society - specific processes could be the ’statist approach’. It is shown that Theda Skocpols States and social revolutions may offer an interpretative framework for recent developments in Eastern Europe.
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How to Cite: Hooghe, L. (1990) “Moeilijkheden rond theorievorming in de sociale wetenschappen: de invloed van modernisatie op politieke democratie”, Tijdschrift voor Sociale Wetenschappen. 35(1). doi: https://doi.org/10.21825/tvsw.95031