历史比较:现代化研究不可或缺的视野

Historical Comparison:An Important Perspective in the Analysis of Modernization

历史比较视野下的现代化研究包含两层含义:首先,现代化理论本身是历史发展到一定阶段的产物,研究现代化理论不能忽视其理论产生的历史背景;其次,现代化本身是一系列具有因果关联的历史进程,率先实现现代化的国家对后发国家按照与其相同的方式实现现代化有一定的制约。现代化发展史并非如传统现代化理论所言是后发国家模仿先发国家的阶段性发展的历史,恰恰相反,现代化发展史是后发国家逐渐与先发国家模式相偏离的历史。一个国家的现代化起步越晚,它的现代化进程就越需要在更强的组织手段下完成。

The comparative-historical analysis of modernization have two implications： first, as a historical product, modernization theories could not be understood without considering the specific context in which they were developed; second, modernization involves a series of historical processes that are causally connected, which means that early modernized societies would re-set the conditions upon which the late-developing societies might be unable to modernize themselves in a similar manner. The real history of modernization is not as what the traditional modernization theory assumed that all modernizing societies have undergone essentially the same process and the late-developing societies should simply copy what has been practiced in those early developed societies. In contrast, past researches have indicated that there＇re divergent routes to a modern world. Generally, the later a society starts its modernization process, the more organizational forces its accomplishment might call for.