Political development is an increase in the ability of the political system to adapt to new social goals, to create new institutions that provide more effective communication between honey by the government and the population.
Previously, representatives of the general sociological direction dealt with the problems of political development, and it was called the "sociology of development." As for the methodological foundations, they were laid by F. Tennis, M. Weber and T. Parsons. According to this direction, traditional and modern types of societies stood out . In the structure of the first kind, tradition and habit play the main role, therefore it is characterized by relative stability. In modern society, the main structural element is a person, not a group: he chooses his place of work and residence, and the field of activity is outside the family.
Political development is directly related to the analysis of the political process from its global aspect. This concept appeared in scientific everyday life in the twentieth century, in its second half, and was intended to reflect the dynamics of political life and its main changes.
There are certain criteria for this concept, which was identified by Pai (USA). They sound like this:
- Structural differentiation.
- Increased systemic ability to mobilize and survive.
- Political development aimed at establishing equal rights of participation of the people in the activities of the state.
The principles of this concept differ from the features of development in social and economic terms. In particular, policy development is irreversible and has its own criteria. It is also characteristic that this process cannot be the same in different systems.
Note that political development does not always change synchronously. Sometimes the tendency to equality leads to a decrease in the efficiency of the th system. Very often, ensuring the proper level of economic development leads to limited political representation and expression of the interests of the group.
Political development and modernization are two interrelated concepts. Thus, modernization is understood as a set of processes on the basis of which new political requirements are developed as an opportunity to maintain regular changes. This is due to the development of many similar qualities that are inherent in modern systems and are essential conditions for modernization.
Political modernization is characterized by several evolutionary stages:
- The origin of the concept that occurred in the 50-60s of the 20th century. Its main areas at that time were the following: democratization of the political system based on the Western model, active mutual work between developed and developing countries.
- The second half of the sixties, which is characterized by the identification of the main shortcomings of the initial research in the field of political modernization. Attempts to correct these errors led to the development of a qualitatively different understanding of the essence of this process.
- The end of the 70s of the twentieth century, the concept turned into a general model of the development of civilization, the basis of which lay in the description of the transition from traditional features of society to modern ones. At this time, the theory of modernization was developed by Almond, Verba and Pai.
Political development differs from political modernization in that:
- The second concept applies to states that are in the transition to an industrial and post-industrial society.
- Modernization is directly related to the concepts of social mobilization and political participation, and not to the formation of political institutions.