Modern Societies: A Comparative Perspective

Description

Sanderson explores the nature of the contemporary world’s 200 societies by comparing and contrasting their basic institutions and patterns of social organization. Major topics include the rich democracies and how they became rich and democratic; the expansion of government and the welfare state; the collapse of Communism and the transition to postsocialist societies; the conditions of less-developed countries, with attention to those that are developing rapidly as well as those that continue to lag far behind; racial and ethnic divisions and conflicts worldwide; the gender revolution of the past fifty years and changing contemporary patterns of gender inequality throughout the world; major shifts in family patterns and the transition to below-replacement fertility; the global spread and expansion of mass education and educational credentialism; worldwide patterns of religious belief and practice; a detailed evaluation of the secularization thesis; economic, political, and cultural globalization; the nature of social and economic progress over the past two centuries; and nine predictions concerning the short-term and long-term future of the world. The book provides detailed and fully up-to-date statistical data on societies in forty-three tables. Cover Half Title Title Page Copyright Page Table of Contents Preface 1. Rich Democracies, I: Economy, Work, and Class Premodern Prelude Being and Becoming a Rich Democracy Occupation and Stratification Modern Welfare States From Industrial to Postindustrial Society? 2. Rich Democracies, II: The Polity Early Modern States The Increasing Size and Scope of the State From Autocracy to Democracy The Rarity and Difficulty of Democracy 3. Socialist and Postsocialist Societies The Nature of State Socialism Leninist Regimes Reform and the Transition to Postsocialism The Great Collapse Postsocialism Does Socialism Have a Future? 4. The Less-Developed World The Nature of Underdevelopment Why Underdevelopment? Development in East Asia Development in Latin America Sub-Saharan Africa and the Failure of Development 5. Race and Ethnicity Race in the United States Race in Brazil Race in South Africa Ethnic Homogeneity and Heterogeneity Ethnicity and Its Discontents 6. Gender Roles and Relations The Patriarchal Past The Great Gender Transformation The Contemporary Situation 7. Marriage and Families The Traditional Family in Asia and Europe The Evolution of the Modern Family System The Contemporary Family Revolution From Large Families to Small The Modern Family: Change or Decline? 8. Modern Mass Education Education in Historical Perspective The Emergence and Expansion of Mass Education Explaining Educational Expansion Credentialism and Its Consequences 9. Religion in the World What Religion Is The World’s Religions Religious Groups in Modern Societies Religion in the United States and Europe Religion in Latin America The Secularization Controversy 10. Globalization (with Arthur S. Alderson) What Globalization Is Globalization and Its Critics Is Globalization Something New? 11. Assessing Past and Future Have We Progressed? Are We Happier? Nine Predictions in Search of a Future References Index