modernization

modernization. The discourse on modernization has been dominated by normative considerations. Modernization is seen as a process leading towards greater equality in the social, political, and cultural arenas, which distinguishes modern from traditional societies. This definition has its roots in the 19th century and is inseparable from the idea of progress. As a theory, it is itself part of the process it purports to describe, in that it legitimizes a particular path of change and delegitimizes others. In reality the path to modernity is neither unilinear nor unitary, and is characterized by blockages and ‘pathological’ developments such as nationalism.

In the traditional model of modernization class and class struggle play a central role, along with differentiation and rationalization, in the definition of the path to be followed. The central problem (most explicitly addressed in the debate on German development) is whether there is a normal road to modernity. The Irish case is structured by two factors: the blockage of class conflict by the national struggle and the ability of the Catholic church, in the wake of the Great Famine, partly to restore the pre‐modern hegemony of religious institutions and ideology. The attitude of the Catholic church and the nationalist intelligentsia towards modernization was ambivalent, as was that of the northern unionists. The latter embraced capitalist economic modernization, but insisted on denying civil liberties to Catholics, while the former embraced civil liberties while attempting to negate the class question. During the latter half of the 19th century the Catholic church consistently opposed and undermined the ‘moral economy’ of the Irish peasantry, and accepted O'Connell's slogan, ‘our religion from Rome, our politics from Ireland’, fostering the rise of a Catholic and nationalist middle class dedicated to economic growth. This policy of fostering modernization in the socio‐economic arena was balanced by a near hysterical opposition to the development of the cultural forms of modernity. While the rationalization of education, health, and welfare services, the promotion of economic growth, and the establishment of a modern class structure were promoted and supported by the Catholic church, the cultural forms of modernization, modernism, were bitterly opposed. The displacement of pre‐modern practices by a secular and cosmopolitan culture was countered by an increasing emphasis on religious and devotional practice.

With the establishment of the Irish Free State, the modernizing impulse which had come from London—particularly in areas of social legislation and the general trend towards secularism—was halted, largely through the influence of the Catholic church. In Northern Ireland, the establishment of a local administration and parliament gave free rein to those intent on curtailing civil liberties for the minority. The blocked process of modernization remains a central dynamic of politics on both sides of the border. In the north the agenda is still dominated by the language of justice and equality. In the south social questions such as contraception, divorce, and abortion have been to the fore. On both sides of the border the question of modernization is still fatally entangled with questions of ethnicity and religion. Indeed, it could be argued that the rhetoric of modernization, or anti‐modernization, is often a verbal smoke screen for a continued obsession with the problems of ethnicity and nationality.

Bibliography

Fennell, Desmond , Heresy: The Battle of Ideas in Modern Ireland (1993)
Lee, J. J. , The Modernisation of Irish Society (1973)

J. P. Smyth