Social Development Theory part 4

Economically, development occurs when productivity rises, enabling people to produce more, earn more and consume more. To do so, they have to be motivated to learn new skills, adapt to new work processes, and adopt new technology, changes which in past ages have met with considerable resistance.

The driving force behind the whole movement is psychological. At the deepest level the energies of society are directed by the collective’s subconscious aspirations. Society’s self-conception of what it wants to become releases an aspiration of the collective for accomplishment. That aspiration exerts a powerful influence on the activities of the society. India’s twin revolutions were spurred by a growing aspiration of Indian society for security, prosperity and enjoyment. A similar aspiration spurs middle class Americans today to invest their savings in the stock market.

We have traced the evolution of social aspirations in India from pre-Independence to the present day. The earliest expression was an aspiration for political freedom and self-determination. After Independence this aspiration evolved into an urge for self-sufficiency, a willingness to try new things and take risks. More recently it has matured into a movement of rising expectations permeating all levels of Indian society.

At the turn of the 20th Century, many Americans of humble birth saw or read about neighbors, friends or others of their class who rose rapidly out of poverty into prosperity. Their example raised the aspirations and expectations of a whole generation of Americans and the generations that followed it. So powerful was this budding movement that it prompted Henry Ford to conceive of the then outlandish notion of building a car affordable by the ordinary man. In 1900 only 8000 cars were produced in the entire USA to meet the needs of a small wealthy class. By 1929, Ford Motors alone had built 15 million Model Ts to meet the aspirations of the masses.

The revolution of rising expectations, a term first used to describe Asia’s awakening in the early 1950s, is the single most powerful force yet unleashed for social development. It marks a stage in which individual members of society not only venture to dream or hope or work for higher levels of accomplishment, but in which those aspirations have coalesced into a conviction and expectation that they will achieve, possess and enjoy more than their parents or they themselves have in the past.

Expectations rise when physical security and essential material needs have been met, when fear of punishment or social ostracism is withdrawn, when rights are safeguarded democratically, when information and urbanization expose people mentally and physically to possibilities and achievements they did not previously know even existed, when technology facilitates higher productivity, and when education enlightens attitudes and elevates social awareness.

Without rising aspirations and expectations, society would not make the effort and take the risks to acquire new forms of behavior to achieve greater results. The psychological motive is primary, the mechanical, technological and organizational processes are secondary. Some forms of economic analysis tend to view these secondary levers as the driving force and thereby miss the essential determinant of the process.

In the course of social development, society is moved by a range of different psychological motives--the quest for survival and self-preservation, the urge to possess land, the seeking for social status and power, and the pursuit of wealth. The revolution of rising expectations represents a new and more powerful motive force for development, for by its nature it is not limited, as all the others have been, to a specific class or section of society.

Like social aspirations, the authority of government has the capacity to direct the flow of social energies through the instrumentation of law, public policies, administrative procedures, controls, incentives and fear of punishment.

Here too there is a graded hierarchy of stages through which government influences the development process. Monarchy is a highly centralized form of government organization with significant capacity to restrict freedom and prevent unwanted activities, but with very limited power to promote social development, because of its limited power to positively motivate and direct human initiative. Modern authoritarian states have augmented the power of government to compel and control by evolving complex organizational mechanisms to reach out into every field of social activity. Its members submit by necessity to the power of the state, but continuously seek for ways around the strictures and demands it places upon them. As the 20th century experiments in Eastern Europe amply demonstrate, its power as an instrument for development is severely limited. Countries with authoritarian governments that have succeeded in releasing social initiative for economic development, such as China, Taiwan and South Korea, have done so by loosening social control over economic activities, while retaining it over political activities.

Modern forms of democracy greatly enhance the development capabilities of society. They are not only capable of enforcing a rule of law which to a large extent the population willingly accepts as in its own interest. They also promote far greater development of individual aspirations, thought, capacity, skill and initiative. The accountability of a democratically elected government necessitates that it continuously institute measures perceived as beneficial to the electorate. Working through decentralized self-governing structures, it empowers more and more centers of activity in the society, leading to greater creativity and innovation. The basic human rights it endorses elevate aspirations and release human energies for higher accomplishment.

The impact of democracy on development was illustrated by Nobel laureate economist Amartya Sen when he observed that no democratic country with a free press and independent judiciary has suffered a famine in this century. India’s Green Revolution is a powerful testament to the power of governmental authority, though in this and every other instance, government’s role cannot substitute for social readiness and social initiative, it can only aid in preparing that readiness, releasing that initiative and organizing the new activities.

Government exercises authority over its citizens through law, administration and enforcement. Society exercises a far more persuasive authority over its members through its ideas, attitudes, customs and values. Different societies may develop at very different rates and in different directions under very similar forms of government, due to differences in social and cultural authority. 

Modern societies are far more free and tolerant than those of previous centuries, yet they continue to exert a very powerful force on their members; only, the character of that force has changed. From being predominantly negative in the form of prohibitions and strictures, now the force of social authority acts far more as a spur to initiative, than a bar. The pressure felt by middle and working class families to ‘keep up with the Joneses’ has become pervasive throughout the world. The bold initiative of a poor farmer in rural India to dig a bore well and become prosperous could act as stimulus for the rapid development of ten surrounding villages because the competitive pressure of social authority compelled his neighbors to keep up with his level of accomplishment.

The spread of education tends to enhance this tendency. Apart from the practical knowledge and skills it imparts, modern education also instills a greater sense of individual self-respect and social rights that impels the individual to seek and maintain status in society.

Here we include the complete range of capacities that determine the ability of the people to physically direct their energies to achieve productive results. The most important of these are scientific knowledge, technology and productive skills. These may appear very different in nature and action from  social aspirations, government and social authority, but the character of their influence on development is quite similar. They provide the direction for the efficient organization of mental, social and material energies. Each of them carries with it an inherent authority and imposes a certain discipline on the expression of social energies. This authority usually takes the form of an impersonal authority of standards, rules and systems, such as the rules for maintaining an orderly flow of air traffic.

Adopting a higher level of technology, whether that involved in the cultivation of hybrid wheat, space travel or electronic commerce requires adherence to more stringent procedures and greater organization, without which it does not work. The Internet is a recent example of a technology that promotes freer and easier commercial and personal transactions, but accomplishes it by imposing rigorous standards of discipline on users in the form of a common computer language for communication.

Societies throughout the world are presently preoccupied with achieving the material results of social development. But it is interesting to note that the process itself does not appear to be driven exclusively or perhaps even primarily by material motives, although these are uppermost in the social consciousness at the present time. Even in instances where material needs and wants have approached saturation, the process shows no signs of abating in speed or intensity. On the contrary, the momentum that has led to such incredible achievements over the past century continues to accelerate. In our search for the fundamental motive that drives the process, we have to look beyond the material preoccupations by which it is currently characterized.

While it is difficult to document at the social level, at the individual level it is readily apparent that physical security and comfort are important but by no means the only or even the most powerful motives for human action. Once these needs are met, there is still the seeking for social prestige and influence, the impulse of curiosity, the thirst for understanding, the drive for accomplishment, the urge for invention and creativity, the attraction of complexity and rich variety of experience—and the irrepressible and inexhaustible quest for enjoyment that all of these activities engender.

The process of development, even the limited sphere of social development, is not driven exclusively by material motives or confined to material achievements. The goals societies and individuals seek are determined by their needs and their values. In the hierarchy of needs, physical survival, security, and comfort are primary. Vital, social and mental needs gain prominence when the basic physical needs are met. As society prospers, the vital urge for intensity, excitement, enjoyment, adventure, changing experience and self-expression become more important determinants. Beyond these lie the mental urge for curiosity, knowledge, creativity and imagination, and the aspiration for spiritual realization.  

This concept of development holds very important implications for the future of humanity and the prospects for progress in the next century. Its suggests that there are no inherent limits either to the speed or to the extent of the development process, other than those imposed by the limitations of our thought, knowledge and aspirations. If we change our view, the character of this process can be transformed from the slow, trial and error subconscious process we have known in the past to a swift, sure leaping progress from height to greater height.