Agrarian-industrial character of the country's development. Agrarian society. Waves of development and technological structures of the industrial economy

Scientific literature contains many definitions of the concept “society”. So, in a narrow sense, it is a group of people who have united to perform some kind of activity and communication, as well as a specific stage in the historical development of a country or people. In the broad sense, it is a part of the material world, isolated from nature, but closely connected with it, consisting of individuals with consciousness and will, including the ways of their interaction.

In the 20th century, R. Aron put forward a theory which was then improved by American sociologists and political scientists A. Toffler, D. Bell, Z. Brzezinski. It describes the progressive process of development of a backward society to an advanced one. In total, there were 3 stages: agricultural (pre-industrial), industrial and post-industrial.

Agrarian society is the first stage of civilized development. In some sources it is also called traditional. Characteristic of Antiquity and the Middle Ages. However, it is still common in some states today. To a greater extent, the countries of the “third world” (Africa, Asia).

The following characteristics of an agrarian society can be distinguished:

The economy is based on primitive crafts and rural subsistence farming. Mainly hand tools are used. Industry is either very little developed or completely absent. Most The population lives in rural areas, engaged in agriculture.
The dominance of state and communal forms of ownership; and private property is not inviolable. Material benefits are distributed depending on a person's position in the social hierarchy.
The pace is low.
practically unchanged. A person is born into a certain class or caste and does not change his position throughout his life. The main social units are the community and the family.
Conservatism of society. Any changes occur slowly and spontaneously.
Human behavior is regulated by beliefs, customs, corporate principles and norms. Independence and individuality are not encouraged. determines the norms of behavior for the individual. A person does not analyze his situation, he strives to adapt to the environment. He evaluates everything that happens to him from the position of the social group to which he belongs.
An agrarian society presupposes the strong power of the army and the church, and the ordinary person is removed from politics.
A limited number of educated people, the predominance of oral information over written information.
Priority over economic life, human life is perceived as the implementation of divine providence.

As a result of economic, political, social and spiritual development, agricultural society in most countries has moved to the industrial stage, which is characterized by growth in agriculture and industry labor productivity, an increase in the volume of fixed capital, and an increase in income of the population.

New classes emerge - the bourgeoisie and the industrial proletariat. The number of peasants in the population is decreasing, and urbanization is taking place. The role of the state is increasing. Agrarian society and industrial society opposed each other in all directions.

The post-industrial stage is characterized by the development of the service sector, bringing them to the forefront, increasing the role of knowledge, science and information. Class differences are being erased, and the share of the middle class is increasing.

Agrarian society, from a Eurocentric point of view, is a backward, closed, primitive social organism, to which Western sociology contrasts industrial and post-industrial civilizations.

Today, industrial society is a concept familiar in all developed and even many developing countries of the world. The process of transition to mechanical production, the decline in the profitability of agriculture, the growth of cities and a clear division of labor are all the main features of the process that is changing the socio-economic structure of the state.

What is an industrial society?

In addition to production characteristics, this society is distinguished by a high standard of living, the development of civil rights and freedoms, the emergence of service activities, accessible information and humane economic relations. Previous traditional socio-economic models were characterized by a relatively low average standard of living of the population.

Industrial society is considered modern; both technical and social components are developing very quickly in it, affecting the improvement of the quality of life in general.

Main differences

The main difference between a traditional agrarian society and a modern one is the growth of industry, the need for modernized, accelerated and efficient production and the division of labor.

The main reasons for the division of labor and mass production can be considered both economic - the financial benefits of mechanization, and social - population growth and increased demand for goods.

Industrial society is characterized not only by the growth of industrial production, but also by the systematization and flow of agricultural activities. Moreover, in any country and in any society, the process of industrial reconstruction is accompanied by the development of science, technology, media and civic responsibility.

Changing the structure of society

Today, many developing countries are characterized by a particularly accelerated process of transition from a traditional society to an industrial one. The process of globalization and free information space play a significant role in changing socio-economic structures. New technologies and scientific advances make it possible to improve production processes, which makes a number of industries especially efficient.

Processes of globalization and international cooperation and regulation are also influencing changes in social charters. Industrial society is characterized by a completely different worldview, when the expansion of rights and freedoms is perceived not as a concession, but as something for granted. In combination, such changes allow the state to become part of the world market both from an economic and socio-political point of view.

Main features and characteristics of industrial society

The main characteristics can be divided into three groups: production, economic and social.

The main production features and characteristics of an industrial society are as follows:

mechanization of production;
labor reorganization;
division of labor;
increased productivity.

Among the economic characteristics it is necessary to highlight:

growing influence of private production;
emergence of a market for competitive goods;
expansion of sales markets.

The main economic feature of an industrial society is uneven economic development. Crisis, inflation, decline in production - all these are frequent phenomena in the economy of an industrial state. The Industrial Revolution does not guarantee stability.

The main feature of industrial society in terms of its social development is a change in values and worldview, which is influenced by:

development and accessibility of education;
improving quality of life;
popularization of culture and art;
urbanization;
expansion of human rights and freedoms.

It is worth noting that industrial society is also characterized by reckless exploitation of natural resources, including irreplaceable ones, and almost complete disregard for the environment.

Historical background

In addition to economic benefits and population growth, the industrial development of society was due to a number of other reasons. In traditional states, most people were able to provide their own means of subsistence, and that’s all. Only a few could afford comfort, education and pleasure. Agrarian society was forced to move to agrarian-industrial society. This transition allowed for increased production. However, the agrarian-industrial society was characterized by the inhumane attitude of owners towards workers and a low level of mechanization of production.

Pre-industrial socio-economic models were based on one form or another of the slave system, which indicated the absence of universal freedoms and a low average standard of living of the population.

Industrial revolution

The transition to an industrial society began during the Industrial Revolution. It was this period, the 18th-19th centuries, that was responsible for the transition from manual labor to mechanized labor. The beginning and middle of the 19th century became the apogee of industrialization in a number of leading world powers.

During the Industrial Revolution, the main features of the modern state took shape, such as production growth, urbanization, economic growth and the capitalist model social development.

The industrial revolution is usually associated with the growth of machine production and intensive technological development, but it was during this period that the main socio-political changes took place that influenced the formation of a new society.

Industrialization

There are three main sectors in both the global and national economies:

Primary - resource extraction and agriculture.
Secondary - processing resources and creating food products.
Tertiary - service sector.

Traditional social structures were based on the superiority of the primary sector. Subsequently, during the transition period, the secondary sector began to catch up with the primary sector, and the service sector began to grow. Industrialization consists of expanding the secondary sector of the economy.

This process took place in world history in two stages: the technical revolution, which included the creation of mechanized factories and the abandonment of manufacturing, and the modernization of devices - the invention of the conveyor, electrical appliances and engines.

Urbanization

In the modern sense, urbanization is population growth big cities due to migration from rural areas. However, the transition to an industrial society was characterized by a broader interpretation of the concept.

Cities became not only places of work and migration, but also cultural and economic centers. It was the cities that became the boundary of the true division of labor - territorial.

The future of industrial society

Today at developed countries There is a transition from modern industrial society to post-industrial society. There is a change in the values and criteria of human capital.

The engine of post-industrial society and its economy should be the knowledge industry. That's why scientific discoveries and new generation technological developments are playing a big role in many countries. Professionals with a high level of education, good learning ability, and creative thinking are considered valuable working capital. The dominant sector of the traditional economy will be the tertiary sector, that is, the service sector.

(tribal) society in agrarian-political(Asian, Eastern). By the beginning of the 1st millennium BC. e. arose state-societies three types: small kingdoms (principalities); federations (conglomerates) of kingdoms in which the core was one strong kingdom (this was later the case with Kievan Rus); empires are large territorial, multi-ethnic states with strong centralized governance. In empires, one tribe (people) occupied a dominant spiritual, political and economic position. The centers of empires became areas located on trade routes connecting kingdoms with different social divisions of labor: agricultural, pastoral, craft. Ancient local civilizations of the Sumerians, Egyptians and others arose in them.

Technological basis The agrarian (pre-industrial) type of society and agrarian civilization consisted of a variety of agricultural tools (plow, axe, harrow, etc.) based on the use of muscular energy of humans and animals. From it arises simple family and other cooperation, which allows for the expanded reproduction of material goods and people.

Demosocial subsystem pre-industrial society is characterized by: including parents, children, grandparents, relatives; the majority of the population living in villages - household unions; inequality in the consumption of material and spiritual goods; mythological consciousness of people; natural demosocial consumption with market elements.

Economic subsystem the agrarian era characterizes agricultural method production, in which the main subject of labor was land and human activity associated with it. The productive force of the agrarian era was the production of iron and steel, the invention of iron and steel tools and weapons, and the application of industrial knowledge and the muscular power of people. The economic strength of this era was private and communal ownership of the means of production and land; The division of labor deepened and the craft sector grew. The vast majority of the population worked in agriculture.

Political subsystem of the agrarian era were unstable empires based on the army, bureaucracy, private and civil law, community self-government: New Assyrian (IX-VII centuries BC; Western Asia, except Urartu and Asia Minor); New Babylonian and Median (VII-VI centuries BC); later Hellenistic, Indian and Chinese empires arose (for example, the Qin Empire; IV-III centuries BC). There were continuous wars, which became especially bloody after the invention of iron weapons; fortified cities arose - centers of kingdoms - surrounded by walls, permanent armies, and colonies.

Spiritual subsystem The agrarian era is characterized by: the dominance of mythology and religion, the construction of temples; the development of certain types of art (music, epic, dance, architecture); the beginnings of education and science; the struggle of various religious (worldview) systems.

Social consciousness had a mythological, religious character, was a collection of myths; the unconscious in him dominated the conscious, and the spiritual remained undeveloped.

In the kingdoms and empires of early and imperial antiquity arose and competed with each other elements two types of formations: (1) political(state, Asian, mobilization) and (2) economic(market, European, liberal). Some of them became leaders in some kingdom or empire. Some of these societies created public and then global religious civilizations(Egyptian, Greek, Persian). For almost two millennia of the agrarian era, political and economic empires, formations, and civilizations waged an ideological, economic, political and military struggle for dominance.

In the VI century. BC e. The Achaemenid Empire conquered the ancient city-policies on the Asia Minor coast. In 336 BC. e. The Greek army was led by Alexander the Great, who defeated the Persian Empire during a ten-year campaign. As a result, the ancient type of society (formation and civilization) began to influence the Asian type of society in the Middle East. Having made Babylon his capital, Alexander tried bring closer together the ancient and Asian worlds in terms of formation and civilization. About 70 city centers were built on Asian territory ancient civilization. After Alexander's death in 323 BC. e. his followers continued this policy. Much attention was paid to creating an economic rather than a despotic state.

Ancient Greece passed the formational and civilizational baton to the Roman Republic through the Greek city-states - colonies in Italy. Rome's contribution to the development of ancient society consisted of the codification of legal norms and the detailing of private law, the significant development of democracy, which became the guardian of citizen-owners, their class and property differences. The Roman state is part auxiliary sphere economic society - existed due to taxes from citizen-owners and campaigns of conquest. In the 1st century BC e. as a result of serious internal contradictions (the struggle of the Gracchi brothers for the interests of the poor), slave uprisings and conflicts of power-hungers, the Roman Republic gave way to the Roman Empire, a political and economic formation and civilization.

In the 5th century The Roman Empire fell under the blows of the barbarians. Its successors were the Holy Roman Empire and Byzantium. Greek territories became provinces of the Roman East. Then came the time of Christianization and Christian civilization in Byzantium, the heir of Rome. As a result of the victory of Islam over Byzantium in 1453, the Middle East suddenly threw off the elements of ancient formation and civilization, and again found itself in the usual rut of the Asian formation and civilization, which were developed in Islamic civilization.

Leonid Vasiliev believes that in this region the Greeks and Romans carried out an experiment on the “organic synthesis of the ancient world and the traditional East,” which failed. Instead, in Palestine, at the crossroads of nations, a new world religion arose - Christianity, which laid the foundation for a new social formation and civilization. Originating from the Eastern peoples and their civilizations, it became the religion of the West. Already here one can discern a sign of a hybrid (mixed) social formation and civilization.

Eastern (despotic) societies in medieval era reached their peak, which was facilitated by the disappearance of a competitor in the ancient world. The main features of such societies are: colossal inequality in people's lives, taken for granted by the illiterate and religious population; the refined subjectivity of the ruling classes; temporary economic efficiency through the exploitation of one’s own people and the peoples of conquered countries; slow evolution in a spiral of political upheavals and social catastrophes.

At the end of the 4th century, Byzantium turned out to be a battlefield antique And Asian formations and civilizations. This struggle led to the gradual transformation of Byzantium into a despotic empire. Process ancient westernization did not take place there: the Asian formation and collectivist civilization prevailed. In this regard, L.V. Vasiliev makes an important conclusion for our days: “And since the general structures underlying the ancient West and the traditional East are fundamentally different, their organic combination, synthesis, turns out to be extremely difficult. In any case, on the territory of the East, in the specific conditions of antiquity and the Middle Ages.”

In Europe, the result of all this confrontation at the end of the agrarian era (XI-XIV centuries) was feudalism - an advanced type of society (ancient-Asian), with a solidaristic civilization. It was the result of a collision antique society with primitive communal. There was, on the one hand, the Christianization of the barbarians, and on the other hand, decentralization state power. The Christianization of barbarians limited the categorical nature of the collectivist principle, softening the omnipotence of the rulers. At the same time, she maintained respect for ancient property, especially in cities. As a result of this synthesis, a feudal type of society (formations and civilizations) arose, which allows us to conclude that the convergence of only such social formations and civilizations is possible, between which there are some similarities. They were between the primitive communal society of the barbarians and the ancient one of the Romans. It can be assumed that the ancient and Asian types of society did not have such features, which led to the collapse of the project of Alexander the Great.

Why did the synthesis (convergence) of Asian and ancient societies not take place in a new unity? Because these types of society form opposites within the same historical era. It is obvious that a society in which the market economy is the basis and freedom is the civilizational principle cannot Just And evolutionarily converge with a society whose basis is a despotic state, and whose civilizational principle is equality. For the convergence of such societies it is necessary developed subjective factor, understanding of the complexity of the problem, developed means of convergence, which did not exist in the agrarian era - all this appeared only in the era of industrialism.

Everyone has heard about such concepts as the industrial age and industrialization, but few can succinctly characterize them. Well, let's try to figure it out.

Industrial society: what is it like?

This era is characterized by a type of social relations based on the division of labor, and industry is able to provide people with a comfortable life. It is an intermediate option between traditional and information (post-industrial) society.

Despite the fact that historians call the modern way of life post-industrial, it has many “industrial” features. After all, we still travel by metro, burn coal in boiler rooms, and the cable telephone sometimes reminds us of the industrial Soviet past with its shrill ringing.

Prerequisites for industrial society

The entry of European society onto the path of progress is a gradual process characterized by a change from feudal relations to capitalist ones.

(the era of industrialization) is considered to be the period from the 16th to the 19th (early 20th) centuries. Over these three centuries, European society has come a long way in development, covering all spheres of human life:

Economic.
Political.
Social.
Technological.
Spiritual.

The process of gradual innovation is called modernization.

The transition to an industrial society is characterized by:

Division of labor. This is what caused an increase in production, as well as the formation of two economic classes: the proletariat (wage workers) and the bourgeoisie (capitalists). The result of the division of labor was the formation of a new economic system - capitalism.
Colonialism - the domination of developed European countries over the economically backward states of the East. It is clear that the colonialist exploits the human and natural resources of the dependent country.
Advances in science and engineering inventions have changed people's lives.

Industrial society is characterized by the following features

Urbanization.
The transition to capitalism.
The emergence of a consumer society.
Education of the global market.
Reducing the influence of the church on a person’s life.
Formation of mass culture.
The enormous influence of science on people's lives.
The emergence of two new classes - the bourgeoisie and the proletariat.
Decrease in the number of peasants.
Industrialization.
Changing the worldview of people (human individuality is the highest value).

Industrial revolution in European countries

As stated earlier, an industrial society is characterized by industrialization. Let us list one by one the countries of the Old World in which this process took place:

1. England is the first European country to take the path of progress. Already in the 16th century, the flying shuttle and the steam engine were invented. The 17th century can generally be called the century of invention: the first steam locomotive made its way from Manchester to Liverpool. In 1837, scientists Cook and Winston created the electromagnetic telegraph.

2. France “lost” a little in the industrialization of England due to strong feudal orders. However, the past revolution of 1789-1794 changed the situation: machines appeared, and weaving began to actively develop. The 18th century is notable for the development of the textile and ceramic industries. Final stage French industrialization is the birth of mechanical engineering. To summarize, we can say that France became the second country to choose the capitalist path of development.

3. Germany lagged significantly behind the pace of modernization of its predecessors. The German industrial type of society is characterized by the appearance of the steam engine in the mid-19th century. As a result, the pace of industrial development in Germany gained impressive momentum, and the country became the leader in production in Europe.

What do traditional and industrial societies have in common?

These two fundamentally different ways of life have identical features. Traditional and industrial society are characterized by:

the presence of an economic and political sphere;
apparatus of power;
- observed in any type of social relations, since all people are different, regardless of the era.

Economics of an industrial society

Compared to the agrarian relations of the Middle Ages, the economy of modern times was more productive.

How is the economy of an industrial society characterized and what distinguishes it?

Mass production.
Development of the banking sector..
Origin of credit.
The emergence of a global market.
Cyclical crises (for example, overproduction).
The class struggle of the proletariat with the bourgeoisie.

A prerequisite for major economic changes was the division of labor, which contributed to increased productivity.

The English economist Adam Smith described this perfectly. He gave an example of the production of pins, in which one can clearly understand what the “division of labor” is.

An experienced craftsman produces only 20 pins per day. If we divide production process for simple operations, each of which will be performed by a separate worker, labor productivity will increase many times. As a result, it turns out that a team of 10 people produces about 48 thousand pins!

Social structure

Industrial society is characterized by the following features that changed people's daily lives:

population explosion;
increasing life expectancy;
baby boom (40-50s of the twentieth century);
environmental deterioration (with the development of industry, harmful emissions increase);
the emergence of a partner family instead of a traditional one - consisting of parents and children;
complicated social structure;
social inequality between people.

Popular culture

What characterizes an industrial society, besides capitalism and industrialization? it is an integral part of it.

Keeping pace with Recording technologies, cinema, radio and other media appeared - they united the tastes and preferences of most people.

Mass culture is simple and understandable to all segments of the population; its goal is to evoke a certain emotional response from a person. It is designed to satisfy fleeting requests, as well as to entertain people.

Here are examples of popular culture:

Women's novels.
Glossy magazines.
Comics.
Series.
Detectives and science fiction.

The genres of literature indicated in the last paragraph are traditionally classified as popular culture. But some social scientists do not share this point of view. For example, “The Adventures of Sherlock Holmes” is a series of detective stories written in artistic language and having many meanings. But Alexandra Marinina’s books can easily be classified as mass culture - they are easy to read and have a clear plot.

What kind of society do we live in?

Western sociologists have introduced such a concept as information (post-industrial) society. Its values are knowledge, the development of information technology, the safety of people and care for our big home - the wonderful green Earth.

Indeed, knowledge plays an increasingly important role in our lives, and information Technology touched almost every person.

But, despite this, industry continues to work, cars burn gasoline, and potatoes are still being collected in the fall 100 years ago. The industrial type of society, as mentioned earlier, is characterized precisely by industry. And harvesting potatoes is an agriculture that arose in time immemorial.

Therefore, the name of today's era “post-industrial” is a beautiful abstraction. It would be more logical to call our society industrial with features of an information society.

Industrial society is characterized by many useful discoveries and human visits to space.

The amount of knowledge accumulated today is enormous; another thing is that it can either benefit humanity or cause harm. We hope that a person will have enough intelligence to apply the accumulated potential of knowledge in the right direction.

An industrial society is a society in which the process of creating a large, technically developed industry (as the basis and leading sector of the economy) and the corresponding social and political structures has been completed. It grows out of traditional society. The term itself belongs to Saint-Simon and was used by Comte O. to contrast the new, emerging economic and social structure with the former, pre-industrial (patriarchal). Modern theories of industrial society represent a form of technological determinism.

Distinctive features of industrial society: Establishment of the industrial technological structure as dominant in all social spheres (from economic to cultural)

Changes in the proportions of employment by industry: a significant reduction in the share of people employed in agriculture (up to 3-5%) and an increase in the share of people employed in industry (up to 50-60%) and the service sector (up to 40-45%)

Intensive urbanization

The emergence of a nation-state organized around a common language and culture

Educational (cultural) revolution. The transition to universal literacy and the formation of national education systems

Political revolution leading to the establishment of political rights and freedoms (including all suffrage)

Growth in the level of consumption ("consumption revolution", the formation of a "welfare state")

Changing the structure of working and free time (formation of a “consumer society”)

Changes in the demographic type of development (low birth rates, mortality rates, increased life expectancy, aging of the population, i.e., an increase in the proportion of older age groups).

Industrialization is the basis of a broader social process - modernization. The "industrial society" model has often been used as a catch-all to describe modern society, embracing capitalism and socialism as its two variants. The theories of convergence (rapprochement, convergence) emphasized the signs of rapprochement between capitalist and socialist societies, which ultimately become neither classically capitalist nor traditionally socialist.

4 DK 1948 by employees of the Energy Institute of the USSR Academy of Sciences Brook I.S. and Rameev B.I. Certificates for a digital computer were received, which meant the start of work on the creation of a computer. The first computer in the USSR was launched on December 25, 1951. In Russia-USSR, an industrial society was created and strengthened throughout the twentieth century. The development of industrial society in Russia was evidenced by: the rapid modernization of the country in the late 19th and early 20th centuries, the accelerated pace of industrial development, the growth of per capita production in leading industries, the completion of the industrial revolution, the closure of manufactories, the growth of factory production, the growth in the number of hired workers in the economy, especially in factories and factories, the emergence of new industries, the development of oil production, electricity production, rapid railway construction, the development of shipping companies, Russia's use of technical and technological achievements of the West

concentration of production and monopolization of the economy, the emergence of cartels and syndicates, banking and financial capital, increased investment of foreign capital in the Russian economy

The formation of an industrial society in Russia in the post-reform era was negatively affected by the following factors: half-hearted reforms of the 1860-1870s, the preservation of remnants of serfdom, insufficient development of market relations, which negatively affected the development of industry

preservation of the class-autocratic system, which hampered freedom of enterprise and the development of trade and industry

active intervention of tsarism in the economy, a large place of state capital in industry and finance

colonial character Russian Empire, the use of internal colonies to develop capitalism “in breadth” rather than “in depth”

spending significant funds to support landowners, maintaining a huge army of bureaucrats.

Industrial society

The modern stage, or era, in the development of mankind. Previous eras: primitive society, ancient agrarian society, medieval agrarian-industrial society. In the most developed Western European countries, the transition to I.o. began around the 15th century. and ended in the 18th century. For I.o. characterized by the following features: a sharp increase in industrial and agricultural production, unimaginable in previous eras; the rapid development of science and technology, means of communication, the invention of newspapers, radio and television; a dramatic expansion of propaganda capabilities; sharp population growth, increasing life expectancy; a significant increase in living standards compared to previous eras; a sharp increase in population mobility; complex division of labor not only within individual countries, but also on an international scale; centralized state; smoothing of horizontal differentiation of the population (dividing it into castes, estates, classes) and growth of vertical differentiation (dividing society into nations, “worlds,” regions).

The radicality of the changes that took place already in the 20th century is evidenced, in particular, by the following facts: since the beginning of the century, the planet's population has more than tripled; in 1900 about 10% of the population lived in cities, by the end of the century - about 50%; 90% of all objects currently used by man were invented in the last hundred years; industrial production is 20 times higher at the end of the century than at the beginning; people use 600 million cars; more than 4,000 artificial Earth satellites have been launched; in 15 years, as many natural resources are consumed as have been used by man throughout his entire existence.

Acting is the beginning of the formation of a single humanity and, accordingly, the formation of world history in the proper sense of the word.

Sometimes I.o. of the last decades, which has achieved particularly effective economic growth is called post-industrial. D. Bell put forward the idea that with t.zr. implementation of various production technologies by society in world history, three main types of social organization can be distinguished: pre-industrial, industrial and post-industrial. This division of history is, however, crude and superficial. It is based on only one feature of social development - the level of economic growth. As a result, the last three centuries of history are divided into two opposing eras, while the entire previous history, spanning many millennia, falls under the inexpressive rubric of “pre-industrial society.” The very difference between industrial and post-industrial types of society is significant only from the point of view. level of economic development. It turns out, however, to be of secondary importance when the holistic culture of developed societies of the last three centuries is taken into account. Post-industrial society is not an independent era, but only the modern stage of the industrial era, which has an undoubted internal unity.

Within each era, there may be one or more civilizations, which can be divided depending on their characteristic style of thinking, structure of feelings and unique collective actions into individualistic, collectivistic and intermediate (see: Individualistic society and collectivistic society). Individualistic civilization in I.o. represented by capitalism, collectivist - by socialism, two variants of which are communism and national socialism.

One of the main trends of I.o. - modernization, the transition from a traditional society to a modernized one. This trend became noticeable in the West.

Europe already in the 17th century, and later it spread to other regions. Traditional societies are characterized by reliance primarily on faith rather than reason, on tradition rather than knowledge, and a disdainful attitude towards economic growth, the introduction of new technologies and economic management. Modernizing societies rely primarily on reason, knowledge and science, carry out consistent industrialization, sharply increasing labor productivity, strengthen the role of management and, in particular, economic management, and give the development of productive forces a certain dynamism and stability. Modernization leads to an increase in the complexity of the social system, intensification of communications, and the gradual formation of a world community. The process of modernization is characteristic not only of capitalist but also of socialist countries. The latter also appeal to reason and science and strive to ensure sustainable economic growth. Moreover, they claim a much more effective modernization than that available to capitalist countries. Modernization is not a historical law that covers all societies and all eras. It characterizes only the transition from an agrarian-industrial society to an industrial one and represents a social trend that noticeably intensified in the 20th century, but can fade in the future under unfavorable circumstances (depletion of natural resources, worsening global problems etc.).

Two fundamental oppositions (individualistic society - collectivistic society and traditional society- modernized society) allow us to distinguish four types of social structure: traditional collectivist society (China, India, etc.), traditional individualistic society, modernized collectivist society (communist Russia, National Socialist Germany, etc.) and modernized individualistic society (USA, Japan, etc.). Modern Russia is moving from a collectivist society to a modernized individualistic society.

This schematization shows the non-uniqueness of the so-called. zap. path and at the same time the non-uniqueness of the socialist, in particular communist, choice. There is no common road that should be passed - let in different times and at different speeds - each society. History of I.O. does not go in the direction once described by K. Marx - to socialism and then to communism. But it is not a repetition by all societies of the path that the Westerners took in their time. countries. Modern humanity is not a single, homogeneous whole. It is made up of very different societies at different levels of economic and cultural development. Societies belonging to different historical eras still exist today. In particular, pre-industrial, agro-industrial societies are widespread in Africa, Latin America and South Asia. Industrial societies differ significantly in their level of development. The gross national product per capita in Russia and Brazil is several times lower than in Italy and France, and in the latter it is almost two times lower than in the USA and Japan. Availability in modern world societies belonging to different historical eras, and significant differences between societies belonging to the same era, indicate that each era, including the industrial one, is always a certain heterogeneity and certain dynamics. An era is only a development trend for a fairly large and influential group of societies, capable of becoming a development trend for many other societies, and over time, perhaps the vast majority of them.