101
generalisation of the Lewisian
framework,
one may visualise the developmental process as an interaction between "capitalist economy" and "traditional society" within а geographical area recognised as the territory of a State. At the beginning, the "capitalist economy" is only a small subsector of society at large which is largely "traditional" and governed by the traditional statecraft of a hereditary elite. In the course of economic development which also accompanies socio-political change, the "capitalist economy" grows and eventually supplants the "traditional society" giving rise to a new kind of society a modern society and
a new kind of State a modern State. The process in the long run is congruent in three aspects: economic development, social change, and political metamorphosis. But in the short run, social demoralisation and political unrest can occur due to the lack of harmony disequilibrium between the pace of economic development
(which is the pace at
which the "capitalist economy" conquers the "traditional society") and the responses of society at large and the State.
"Social" demoralisation Occurs because the values of life and the rules of behaviour in the "capitalist economy" are different from what people were used to in the "traditional society". Political unrest is an expression of the loss of life's security that results from the disintegration of the "traditional society" under the impact of the "captialist economy". Since it is the function of the State to prevent or minimise political unrest, the State must now change its ways of relating to society at large to ensure peace and order despite the changing constellation of political forces and social influences. Social security is one of the responses that the State can make to the insecurity of life under the capitalist rules of the game without impairing the essential dynamism of the capitalist sector.
is
Schematically, one may think of a continuum with the full traditional society with no capitalist elements at one extreme and with the full capitalist economy with no remnants of traditional society at another. The full traditional society subsumes economic activities under the requirements of social relations which are structured by kinship, lineage, age, sex and sibling rank within a community which small enough for every one to know everyone else. "Society" at large in this traditional setting is an aggregate of such communities customarily bound by their common language, race, culture, religion or the ruler. The traditional State is a ceremonial superstructure of society with only a loose or blurred sense of territory and people. The social structure is stable and continues with little change over generations. There is no ambiguity as to the role of any specific individual within society at any time. Custom holds the social structure in a stable and secure There are perfect foresight and knowledge about the meaning and consequences of individual behaviour, associated with well-ordered rewards and sanctions. This means that perfect security governs the social and economic relations of the traditional society. Economic welfare may be occasionally damaged by acts of God external to the working of the traditional socio-economic system. Eut the burden of such external calamities is shared out equitably by all members of the traditional society according to clear-cut customary rules so that customary justice is done to all. These characteristics of the traditional society are described by many writers. (Since the changing nature of the State is central to the schemata of evolution discussed here, one would most highly recommend the classic in the field by R.M. MacIver.) 2
manner.
In а full capitalist economy, society is subsidiary to the economy. Everything income, status, power, or one's sense of pride - is in constant flux, and social relations are mere shadows of market-governed exchange relationships subject to change in association with shifts in economic advantages. Every individual is free in the choice of a role in the system. No one is secure in the capitalist economy in ways that characterise the life of the traditional society. But, as was shown by reference to conventional economies, the self-regulating market system which is an alias for the full capitalist economy has its own peculiar calculable stability and security. Individuals are endowed with the ability to realise an optimal level of security and an optimal level of satisfaction about life in general through a wise use of resources spread over various needs and over time. Thoroughly individualistic and egalitarian, they do not complain about individual differences in income or wealth. In a way, "acceptable inequality" prevails. With democracy as a basis for constituting and maintaining the State, whatever happens in
1 A most illuminating Work on socio-economic disequilibria which is simul- taneously history and theory is Karl Polanyi, The Great Transformation (1944) (re- printed, Boston: Beacon Press, 1957, 1960).
2 R.M. MacIver, The Modern State (London: Oxford University Press, 1926).
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