Traditional and Modern Societies During the 'European Term Paper

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Traditional and Modern Societies during the 'European Expansion': Modernism in Europe and the Rise of Socialism in Non-Western Societies

European expansion and the civilization of modernity" by S.N. Elsenstadt provides a through discussion and analysis of the dynamics concerning the European expansion, centering in particular on its effects in non-Western or Asian societies. Tracing the history of the European expansion from the emergence of industrialization to the development of capitalism in Western societies, the author seeks to determine what caused the seemingly contradicting development of the so-called 'expansionist' movement of modernization in Europe. That is, instead of spreading modernization and capitalism in Asian societies, what occurred was the rise of socialism, which is a new form of society that overturns the basic premises of capitalism -- in effect, modernization.

This paper discusses Elsenstadt's arguments regarding the changes in the European expansion in non-Western societies: from being modernist to socialist, even traditionalist, societies. This paper argues that the retardation of modernism in non-Western societies is not exactly the abrupt stoppage of the European expansion. Instead, what occurred is modernization in a new form -- that is, socialism, wherein traditional society morphed with forces of modernization to create a new society where solidarity is preserved despite the new world order of capitalism.

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This argument is supported by the author's (Elsenstadt) historical and socio-cultural analysis of the changes that occurred in traditional non-Western societies. Furthermore, this analysis looks at how the rise of socialism indeed became the modern society of non-Western societies, which are actually parallel to Western societies' concept of a modern society.

The author, in establishing his position regarding the rise of socialism in non-Western societies, presented in the article theoretical assumptions showing that modernization is theorized to spread throughout the world, affecting both Western and non-Western societies. One of the primary assumptions is that, "...institutional kernels of such systems...would lead to the development of similar irreversible structural and organizational outcomes in other spheres...to the general process of sustained growth and development..." (187). From this theoretical assumption arose the idea of "European expansion," illustrating the spread of modernization to all forms of human societies as inevitable. This theory of "sustained growth," furthermore, posits that there occurs a "continuity of modernization" or "continuous development" that encompasses all kinds of societies in the world.

It is evident in human history, however, that this theory did not hold true in non-Western societies. Elsenstadt….....

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