Elements of modernization

Initially there was a great difficulty in defining “modernity” or modernization. Certain societies were considered to be modern (Was it because they were powerful?) and their observed characteristics constituted the ideal type of a modern society. To understand what attitudes, traits, values, feelings and action patterns can be called modern it is useful to produce the list of themes considered by Smith and Inkeles (1966) in developing the scale of modernity. They are shown in Table 25.1.