Modernization and Its Political Consequences: Weber, Mannheim, and Schumpeter - Softcover

Blokland, Hans

Softcover

ISBN 10: 0300204965 ISBN 13: 9780300204964

Publisher: Yale University Press, 2013

Synopsis

People’s capacity to give meaning and direction to social life is an essential dimension of political freedom. Yet many citizens of Western democracies believe that this freedom has become quite restricted. They feel they are at the mercy of anonymous structures and processes over which they have little control, structures and processes that present them with options and realities they might not have chosen if they had any real choice. As a result, political interest declines and political cynicism flourishes.
The underlying cause of the powerlessness pervading the current political system could be modernization. Taking the work of Max Weber, Karl Mannheim, and Joseph Schumpeter as a point of departure, Hans Blokland here examines this process. The topics covered are, among others, the meaning of modernization, the forces that drive it, and, especially, the consequences of modernization for the political freedom of citizens to influence the course of their society via democratic politics.

About this title

About the Author:

Hans Blokland is an independent scholar in the Netherlands. His previous books include Freedom and Culture in Western Society.

Review:

"Blokland's scholarship is excellent, thorough, accurate, and interesting. His detailed examination of Weber, Schumpeter, and Mannheim not only pursues the arguments they make, shows how their ideas evolved, and the context in which they originated, but draws important inferences from their work."-David E. Apter, Yale University

About this edition

• Publisher: Yale University Press
• Publication date: 2013
• ISBN 10: 0300204965
• ISBN 13: 9780300204964
• Binding: Paperback
• Number of pages: 278