What Causes Modernization?

A half century ago, answers to this question were easy to find. At that time, all the advanced countries shared a host of common elements: Christian and European heritages, light skin coloring and folded eyelids, northern location, democratic politics, capitalist institutions, and industrial economies. An analyst could pick any one of these elements and call it key, and who could nay-say him? This is, in fact, what happened. Even Max Weber (1864-1920), the great social theorist, saw capitalism tied to the culture of the West. The Japanese achievement already challenged these notions a half century ago, yet Japan was still enough isolated and enough behind that it could be ignored. Then, from the mid-1960s, Japan became too big to ignore. Its achievements rendered out-of-date all those theories based on European exceptionalism. Its record conclusively showed Weber wrong in thinking that Asian culture obstructs modernization. The analysts eventually adapted to circumstances, and even ...  more