Laws and patterns of social development. Society Development
Typology of societies.
Several types of society, united by similar features or criteria, make up a typology.
First typology chooses writing as the main feature, and all societies are divided to pre-literate(i.e. able to speak but not write) and written(owning the alphabet and fixing sounds in material media: cuneiform tablets, birch bark letters, books, newspapers, computers).
According to second typology, societies are also divided into two classes - simple and complex. The criterion is the number of management levels and the degree of social stratification. In simple societies there are no leaders and subordinates, rich and poor. These are the primitive tribes. In complex societies, there are several levels of government, several social strata of the population, arranged from top to bottom as income decreases.
Simple societies coincide with preliterate ones. They don't have a rigidity, complex management and social stratification. Complex societies coincide with written ones. This is where writing, branched government and social inequality appear.
At the base third typology there is a way of obtaining means of subsistence (hunting and gathering, cattle breeding and gardening, agriculture, industrial and post-industrial society).
In the middle of the 19th century K. Marx proposed his typology of societies. The basis is two criteria: the mode of production and the form of ownership. Society at a certain stage historical development called socio-economic formation. According to K. Marx, mankind has successively gone through four formations: primitive, slave-owning, feudal and capitalist. The fifth was called the communist one, which was to come in the future.
Modern sociology uses all typologies, combining them into some kind of synthetic model. Its creator is considered a prominent American sociologist Daniela Bella. He divided all history into three stages: pre-industrial (which was characterized by power), industrial (which was characterized by money) and post-industrial (which was characterized by knowledge).
Law of acceleration of historical time. Its essence is as follows. Comparing the evolution of societies, the various stages that human civilization goes through in its development, scientists have found out a number of patterns. One of them can be called a trend, or the law of the acceleration of history. It says that each subsequent stage takes less time than the previous one. The closer to the present, the stronger the spiral of historical time shrinks, society develops faster and more dynamically. Thus, the law of the acceleration of history testifies to the densification of historical time.
law of regularity. The second law, or the tendency of history, states that peoples and nations develop at different rates. That is why in America or Russia there are industrially developed regions and areas where the population has preserved the pre-industrial (traditional) way of life.
When, without going through all the previous stages, they are involved in the modern flow of life, not only positive, but also negative consequences can consistently manifest themselves in their development. Scientists have found that social time in different points spaces can flow at different speeds. For some peoples, time passes faster, for others - more slowly.
v Law of acceleration of history : each subsequent stage of development takes less time than the previous one.
Each subsequent social stage is shorter than the previous one. The closer to modernity, the faster society develops, the more compacted historical time(more events happen, technical inventions, scientific discoveries and etc.).
v Peoples and nations develop at different speeds .
IN modern world neighboring regions and peoples located on different stages development: pre-industrial, industrial or post-industrial. This is due to geographical, historical, political, religious and other reasons.
v Evolution - these are gradual, continuous changes, passing one into another without jumps and breaks.
v Revolution - complete change of all or most parties public life, a coup in social structure society, social change.
Evolutionary the path of development of society is the path of reforms.
reforms - reorganization of any side of public life while maintaining the existing social order.
Reforms are usually carried out "from above", by the ruling forces.
Types of reforms:
v economic reforms (eg new tax system);
v political reforms (eg new electoral system);
v social reforms (eg introduction of universal secondary education).
Reforms can be progressive or regressive
In addition to socio-political revolutions, there are also technological revolutions:
v neolithic revolution (transition from appropriating forms of management - hunting and gathering - to producing - agriculture and cattle breeding; 10 thousand years ago);
v Industrial Revolution (transition from manual labor to machine, from manufactory to factory; XVIII - XIX centuries);
v Scientific and technological revolution - This is a leap in the development of the productive forces of society, based on the widespread use of scientific achievements in production.
v Globalization – historical process rapprochement of peoples and states, their mutual influence and interdependence, the transformation of mankind into a single political and socio-economic system.
Consequences of globalization.
positive consequences:
v Stimulates the economy, its growth and development (goods can now be crafted anywhere in the world depending on where it costs less to produce® production costs are reduced, additional funds for its development appear).
v Brings states together, makes them take into account each other's interests, warns against extreme actions in politics and economics (Otherwise, the international community may use various sanctions: restrict trade, stop aid, freeze the provision of credit, etc.).
v Standardizes production, technology (e.g. requirements for safety, quality, product compatibility).
Negative consequences:
v Bankrupts small and medium producers (large firms have the opportunity to spend large amounts of money on advertising; the consumer seeks to buy a world-famous product, a well-known brand).
v Often hinders the development of domestic production (some enterprises do not have the means to comply with quality requirements, environmental safety, do not compete with foreign manufacturers that are either technologically advanced or subsidized by national authorities).
v Local problems in the economy of individual countries cause a global economic crisis.
v Anonymizes national cultures standardizes the lifestyle of people in different countries(Americanization, the imposition of Western values and lifestyles on the whole world).
v Caused the emergence of global problems of mankind (more on that in the next lesson).
Anti-globalism- a political movement directed against certain aspects of the globalization process, in particular against the dominance of global transnational corporations and trade and government organizations such as the World Trade Organization (WTO). Anti-globalists regularly hold social forums and various protest actions in different countries of the world
World system.
At the global level, humanity is turning into a world system, which is also called the world community. It includes all countries of the planet.
It is customary to divide the world system into three parts:
v Core - countries Western Europe, North America, Japan is the most powerful state with an improved production system and a developed economy.
They have the most capital, high-quality goods, the most advanced technologies and means of production, and an efficient market infrastructure. They export sophisticated equipment, the latest technology.
v Periphery are the poorest and most backward countries in Africa and Latin America.
They are considered to be a raw material appendage of the core (they mainly export raw materials for industry, natural energy carriers, fruits). Most of the profits are appropriated by foreign capital. The local elite takes capital abroad and serves the interests of foreign companies. Huge gap between rich and poor, very narrow middle class. Political regimes unstable, frequent coups, social conflicts.
v semi-periphery - sufficiently developed industrial countries, but they lack the political influence and economic power of the core countries (China, Brazil, Russia, India, etc.).
They produce and export industrial and agricultural goods. Production is mechanized and automated, but most technological advances are borrowed from the core countries. These are intensively developing countries (leaders in terms of economic growth rates). The market infrastructure is not yet sufficiently developed. Political regimes are stable.
The countries of the semi-periphery are seeking to strengthen their role in world politics and the economy, to match their economic potential with political influence, and to transform the unipolar world into a multipolar one.
Global problems.
Peculiarities global problems:
v have a planetary character, affect the interests of all people;
v threaten degradation and destruction of all mankind;
v need urgent solutions;
v require the collective efforts of all states.
Global problems:
● environmental crisis;
● demographic problem;
● the threat of a new world war;
● the North-South problem;
● international terrorism;
● energy, raw material problems;
● food problem;
● health protection, etc.
Causes global problems:
● globalization of society (in the context of strengthening interconnection and interdependence of countries and regions, individual events, contradictions, conflicts outgrow the local framework and acquire a global character);
● active transformative activity of people, the inability of humanity to put it under reasonable control.
v Atmospheric pollution.
Every year, industrial enterprises and transport emit more than 30 billion tons of carbon dioxide and other substances harmful to humans into the atmosphere. This destroys the ozone layer, which protects the Earth from the effects of harmful ultraviolet radiation, and leads to the accumulation of carbon dioxide in the atmosphere, which poses a threat to global warming. The latter threatens with a "global flood", because. lead to the melting of glaciers and the rise in sea levels. Cities located on the coast or in the lowlands will be flooded
v Pollution of water bodies and the World Ocean (up to 10 million tons of crude oil and oil products get into it every year, which leads to the extinction of entire species of animals and plants).
v Exhaustion natural resources(in the 50 years after the World War, more mineral raw materials were used than in the entire previous history; all the known reserves of oil, gas, and coal in the world will last less than 50 years).
v Deforestation (more than 20% of the Amazonian jungle has already been destroyed; in Russia, more than 180 million cubic meters of forest are cut down annually; in the world, deforestation is 18 times higher than its growth).
v Destruction of soil, desertification of territories (for this reason, 2 thousand species of plants and animals are on the verge of extinction, about 50 million people will leave their homes in the next decade to escape the desert).
v Pollution of the planet with waste, household waste (most of it cannot be disposed of or recycled; many countries do not have recycling technologies).
Ways out from the crisis:
v environmentally friendly production (development of technologies that reduce the negative impact on the nature of industry: waste-free production, closed cycles, development of resource-saving technologies, alternative energy sources, nature recovery industries, etc.);
v ecological expertise (organization of effective public control over enterprises);
v environmental education (change in consciousness and lifestyle of people; transition from aggressive consumerism to moderation, to the harmony of nature and society);
modern science considers nature and society as a single system - Noosphere (this, according to Vernadsky, is the biosphere controlled by the scientific mind).
v Rapid population growth is provided by developing countries. This leads to an increase in poverty in these countries, food shortages, sharply exacerbates problems with housing, education, and health care.
v Declining and rapidly aging populations in developed countries. Already, the number of pensioners in some countries exceeds the working-age population. From the collapse of the social security system in European countries, so far, labor migration to the EU zone of immigrants from Asia and Africa is saving. But, on the other hand, it gives rise to a whole tangle of new social, ethno-confessional and other problems.
v Overpopulation of several countries of the world.
Regions with the highest concentration of population: East Asia(East of China, Japan, Korea), South Asia (India, Bangladesh, Pakistan), Southeast Asia(Indonesia, Philippines, Thailand), Zap. Europe.
The share of developed countries in the world's population is just over 10%. At the same time, almost 90% of the world's population live in conditions of poverty, high unemployment, disease, social and political instability. A clear program of measures to help development from the rich North to the poor South is needed.
The North-South Problem.
With each decade, the trend is growing growth of the economic lag of developing countries from developed ones.
The ratio of developed and developing countries in terms of GNP per capita: in 1960 - 25:1, now - 40:1. But in addition to the income gap, the technology gap is widening. As a result, the problems of internal sources of financing for their own development have not been resolved in most developing countries. Developing countries owe the West over $1 trillion.
Annually approx. 50 million people the world is dying of hunger. More than 75% of the population in developing countries lives in unsanitary conditions. 1.5 billion people deprived of elemental honey. help. Child mortality is 4 times higher.
All global problems closely related to developing countries
The problem of preserving the world.
v Statistics:
of the 4 thousand years of history known to us, only approx. 300 were peaceful;
today, for every person on the planet, only in the form of nuclear weapons, there are 10 tons of explosives; this number of weapons can destroy the Earth several dozen times;
spending on armaments in the world today is approx. 1 trillion $ per year.
v The problem of nuclear war. If it starts, then all of humanity will perish: both those against whom it starts, and those who start it. The "nuclear winter" will come. That is why this problem is global.
v Modern warfare is a war against civilians.
The ratio between the number of dead civilians and the military:
1 World War- 20 times less;
World War 2 - the same;
War in Korea (1950-53) - 5 times more;
The Vietnam War (1964-68) - 20 times more;
Modern military conflicts (beginning of the 21st century) are 100 times more.
v The problem of local armed conflicts. The danger is that today's local conflicts can escalate into regional and even world wars.
v Solve the problem: rejection of war as a means of resolving conflicts, search for consensus, negotiations; recognition of the right of peoples to self-determination; improvement of the global collective security system, etc.
. International terrorism.
The breeding ground for the development of terrorism is extremism is a commitment to extreme, predominantly violent means to achieve goals.
Terrorism - Violence for the purpose of intimidation and achievement of certain political goals.
Causes of terrorism:
Socio-economic (low standard of living of people, unemployment; an increase in the number of lumpen and marginalized people in society; terrorism today is very profitable business, trade in weapons, drugs, hostages allows you to make huge profits
v Political (political instability; lack of measures to ensure the security of the population; the eternal conflict between the West and the East).
v Religious (there are religious movements that promote violence. The most common of them is Wahhabism (a radical trend of Islam).
Pattern problem community development solved differently in different theoretical concepts. Not everyone recognizes the existence of objective laws in society. Indeed, on the surface social phenomena to discover some stable, regular, necessary connections, independent of human consciousness extremely difficult. The fact that certain changes are taking place in society and these changes lead to significantly different states of society is quite obvious. Everyone recognizes this. But it is not at all obvious that these changes are of a natural nature. And yet deep theoretical analysis, penetrating beyond the surface of phenomena, allows us to establish these regularities. What appears on the surface as random events, phenomena, actions caused by the will, desire of individual people, in its depths appears as objective, i.e. relationships that do not depend on the will and desire of people. Whether people want it or not, they are forced, in order to satisfy their needs, to enter into relationships that develop as a result of previous activities, i.e. predetermined by the activities of previous generations. And each new generation finds these established relationships as objectively given (given by past activities), i.e. independent of their choice, desires, whims, etc. This is an objective factor in social development, which makes it possible to speak about the existence of objective and necessary ties (laws) in society.
The idea of regularity in society was most fully developed in the Marxist concept of society. According to this concept, material relations between people, primarily in the sphere of material production, in order to develop do not require passing through the consciousness of people, i.e. are not recognized as such. This does not mean that people, entering into these relations (production, exchange, distribution), act as beings devoid of consciousness. This is basically impossible. Simply, material production relations do not require their awareness as a kind of integral system of relations that have a structure, direction, functioning, obey certain laws, etc. Ignorance of the laws of commodity production, ignorance of the physiological mechanisms of childbearing did not prevent people for thousands of years from producing and exchanging goods, as well as giving birth to children. Material relations, according to the Marxist model, being initial, primary, determine other relations, the so-called ideological relations (political, legal, moral, etc.).
The specificity of the laws of social development lies in the fact that, unlike the laws of nature, where blind, elemental forces act, in society, regular connections and relationships are realized, paving their way only through the activities of people, and not outside it, and along with it, it is in the activity people, in addition to random, situational moments due to various human desires or even whims, there are, as already noted, objective, necessary, i. regular moments. And this regularity, historical necessity does not exclude the conscious activity of people, being present in it as an objective, necessary factor. Historical necessity makes its way through a mass of accidents, i.e. has the character not of a strictly unambiguous predetermination, but of a certain trend, a field of possibilities. In other words, within the framework of necessity, the polyvariance of development is realized, which constitutes the space of human freedom. Doing conscious choice within various options(provided that the person has known these options, otherwise the choice will not be conscious), the person directs his efforts, his activities to the implementation of the chosen option, within the framework represented by this polyvariant need. Choice is associated with responsibility, an essential companion of human freedom.
Three Laws of Society's Development Ilenov VV Today, a feeling of anxiety hovers over the world: will there be a second wave of the crisis or will the economy recover? It is possible to foresee the future, to understand the present, to know the past when one knows the laws of the development of society. We will reveal the essence of the 3 laws of sociogenesis. Society structure Members of society are divided into two categories: workers employed in the sphere of production, and non-workers (children, the elderly, etc.). In this regard, we divide consumption by necessary- workers' consumption and secondary- consumption of all the rest. Triad production - distribution - necessary consumption form a material basis. A superstructure rises above the base, consisting of a core (social organization of society) and secondary elements (other relations). The base and superstructure form a formation. The formation is divided into control and controlled subsystems: the core of the superstructure acts as the control subsystem, which is subordinate to the basis and secondary elements of the superstructure. Law 1 Working people create products that contain the energy of consumption E. To restore their strength, they need the energy of consumption A. If we subtract A from E, then the remainder will be surplus energy. The set of products that contains this energy is a surplus product. The surplus product is the source of existence of the superstructure and the development of the basis. Without surplus energy, society is doomed to extinction. So the first law is - the existence of society is unthinkable without surplus energy . Act 2 The development of society can take place in two ways: 1st (intensive) - the transformation of the old basis into a new one; 2nd (extensive) - expansion of the basis due to an increase in the number of workers. An intensive path of development gives a sharp increase in the efficiency of production and consumption, as a result of which a significant amount of surplus product is created. The extensive one is so ineffective that by itself it does not even ensure the simple survival of society. This is where the second law comes in. the existence of society is possible only by transforming the old basis into a new one . Society exists because it changes. Therefore, there are no eternal empires. Act 3 Basic relations can only be of two types, the nature of which is polar: 1) individual, private; 2) general, collective. According to the third law the nature of the new basis is opposite to the old one that generates it . So, we have outlined the content of 3 laws. Unfolding in time, they determine the inevitability and repetition of events. Repeatability is found in the change of forms of social relations. Mold change mechanism Human society exists for almost 5 million years. In its movement in time, there is a correlation between the considered laws and the division of the formation into a controlling and controlled subsystem. Under the influence of the basic laws, there is a change in the forms of the control and controlled subsystems, and these changes do not coincide in time. This discrepancy leads to the fact that the history of mankind is divided into formations, and the formation - by two stage. First stage . At this stage, there are two bases: dominant and dying. On the basis of the dominant one, a control subsystem is formed, under the control of which the following occurs: a) expansion of the sphere of the dominant basis; b) development of the control subsystem; c) the development of secondary elements of the superstructure; d) the withering away of the old basis. At first, the reduction of the old basis does not affect the decrease in the surplus product, but over time, the compression factor begins to affect: 1. the extensive path begins to dominate, as a result, the size of the surplus product significantly decreases 2. there is a lack of means of subsistence 3. the rate of development of production and consumption decreases. The first stage ends when the old basis ceases to exist and further development is possible only through the transformation of the dominant basis into the newest one. The dominant basis, having absorbed the old basis, becomes the foundation for the formation of the next basis. Second phase . The appearance of elements of a new basis marks the beginning of the second stage. Note that the control subsystem is not capable of exerting a regulatory influence on controlled subsystems that have polar properties, so the new basis is without control. As a result of the independent and uncontrolled development of a new mode of production and consumption, a disproportion arises between them. The growing disproportion causes a decrease in the value of the surplus product. Its decline to certain limits becomes the cause of the deterioration of living conditions and social tensions, the extreme aggravation of which is removed through conflict. In the course of the conflict, the following occurs: a) the elimination of disproportion; b) accelerated development new basis; c) the development of secondary elements of the superstructure; d) narrowing the sphere of existence of the dominant basis; e) reducing the functions of the control subsystem. At the second stage, conflicts are repeated until the newest basis takes a dominant position. The apotheosis is the last conflict, during which the old and the formation of a new control subsystem is demolished. In the history of mankind, 8 formations are distinguished: 1,3,5,7 are of a private nature; 2,4,6,8 - common. Forecast of the future Now we are at the 2nd stage of the 8th formation (see Ilenov, The World History- modernity), which is characterized by crises of overconsumption. The first such crisis hit the countries of the socialist bloc led by the USSR. The second is approaching the developed capitalist countries and their leader, the United States. Then the center of the world economy will move to the developing countries of Asia and South America who have to go through the third crisis. Then Africa will flourish and become the center of economic dominance, but not forever. This is how we see the future for 100 years. You should not panic about crises, because panic only multiplies losses. We must consciously, taking into account the laws, change ourselves and our society.
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The patterns of social development indicate a gradual change from imperfect forms of community life to more developed, democratic ones. The role of the supreme power in highly developed states is increasingly reduced to the role of a justice of the peace, which only intervenes in the course of socio-economic relations when the participants in these relations themselves cannot reach agreement on solving the most important problems.
Fearing an objective study of the laws of social development that doom capitalism to ruin, the bourgeoisie demands from its clerks to falsify its conclusions, to prove the eternity and inviolability of the capitalist system. That is why the bourgeois party spirit is hostile to objectivity and scientific character. However, the proletariat, called upon to liberate mankind from exploitation and being the legitimate successor to the entire cultural heritage of mankind, including those created by bourgeois society, cannot do without assimilating the culture of the past. The task of Marxists, wrote V. I. Lenin, is to be able to assimilate and rework the gains made by these clerks... The fulfillment of this dual task set by Lenin plays an important role in the struggle to build a communist society. In the process of building communism, since it is carried out in the conditions of the coexistence of two opposing social systems: socialism and capitalism, the second side of this task acquires special significance - the struggle against bourgeois ideology, a struggle in which the principle of revolutionary proletarian party membership developed by V. I. Lenin plays the most important role. .
Gradually, in the course of understanding the laws of social development, the concepts of industrial and domestic infrastructure were introduced into scientific circulation, the use of which was associated with the need to create conditions for the functioning of industrial and non-industrial spheres. This division of infrastructure was consolidated in practice, which had not only positive, but also negative consequences.
Lenin's brilliant statements about the laws of social development are an invaluable source of a correct understanding of many contemporary phenomena. No, you can't understand them without Lenin, you can't understand them without Lenin current situation world, the patterns of development of decaying capitalism in the era of imperialism, the fate of the proletarian revolution and its victory, the ways of building socialism and communism.
This kind of reasoning is justified, since the laws of social development testify to the progressive movement of all states towards progressive forms of coexistence and economic cooperation despite all the upheavals they encounter along the way.
The task of science is to explore the patterns of social development and, on their basis, build real economic, socio-political concepts and programs that allow all participants in reproductive processes to develop steadily.
Nevertheless, the upholding of history as a science of the laws of social development favorably distinguished K.
SOCIOLOGY is the science that studies society, public relations, patterns of social development, social groups and their interaction.
There is a fundamental difference that underlies the approach to understanding the laws of social development in French and English sociology: English sociology, associated with traditional ideas of the principles of life, was distinctly individualistic. Society for her is primarily a collection of individuals, and only an understanding of the nature of the individual himself provides the key to the study of the social whole. This is an important difference, since the research methodology was based on it. So, if Comte begins the study of society as a system, then Mill, on the contrary, seeks to reduce the social, that is, the general, to the individual. Society for him is only a simple association of individuals, and social laws are reduced without a trace to the laws of individual human nature. According to Mill, uniting into a society, people do not turn into something else with different properties.
Mastering the revolutionary theory of the working class and all working people - Marxism-Leninism - makes it possible to understand the laws of social development, the policy of the party, the path of movement towards communism, and to be an active and conscious creator of a new life.
The current Program of the Party, as stated in the resolution of the Congress, on the whole correctly characterizes the patterns of world social development, the goals and main tasks of the struggle of the Party and Soviet people for communism. Its fundamental provisions are confirmed by life. Much of what is written in the Program has already been completed. At the same time, some of its provisions - this must be said frankly - did not fully stand the test of time, since they contained elements of detachment from reality, running ahead, and unjustified detailing. And, of course, for two decades and in life Soviet society, in the life of other socialist countries, and in world development as a whole, many important changes have appeared. All this requires a deep theoretical understanding and must be taken into account when developing a long-term strategy of the party in the field of domestic and foreign policy.
The constant strengthening of the Armed Forces is an objective necessity for the successful construction of socialism and communism, arising from the laws of social development and the characteristics of the class struggle between capitalism and socialism.
It goes without saying that the prophets had no idea about driving forces and patterns of social development.
Sociology as a science of society in general, based on certain positions, seeks to establish the laws of social development, one way or another understanding of society as a product of mutual activity and communication of people. But in this striving, it cannot but be interested in man himself as the main element of society. In other words, the sociological laws that explain social phenomena on the basis of a material basis, the process of production, must be considered in their connection with the laws that relate to man as a special being in the world. Man is a product of society and its laws, but society is the way it is, precisely because it is a society of people, because people are united in it, and not other creatures ... This does not mean that society is wholly determined by man or even primarily human.
Indeed, on this basis it is easy to distinguish, let us say, historians who comprehend the general patterns of social development from people who have received scattered information about historical facts.
