Modernization theory justified empire by framing other societies as needing outside intervention

Evidence

This new form of imperialism required a new language; that language was called “modernization theory.” Area studies were dominated by this approach from the 1950s to the 1970s. Modernization theory drew on the work of Max Weber, distinguishing between “traditional” and “modern” societies. Traditional societies were agricultural and rural, slow to change, and politically authoritarian. Modern societies, on the other hand, were seen as industrial, quick to change, and politically democratic and egalitarian. The scholars who developed this approach offered various explanations for why traditional societies did not progress; some pointed to cultural factors, others to economic ones. At the end of the day, it was agreed that change would not come from within these societies but had to be brought from outside. — Deepa Kumar, Islamophobia and the Politics of Empire, 247

Categorization

Category: Causal Relationships

Related

• Modernization theory framed imperial intervention as benevolent external uplift (similarity 0.92)
• Modernization theory pathologized non-Western societies as internally deficient (similarity 0.85)
• Postwar US empire was legitimated through modernization theory and Orientalism (similarity 0.84)
• Modernization theory served as an ideological counter to revolutionary upheaval (similarity 0.83)
• Muslim monarchs initiated Western-style modernization to defend against colonialism (similarity 0.83)
• US economic imperialism generated modernization theory rooted in racist assumptions about Muslims (similarity 0.83)
• Political Islam’s visibility pushed Western social science beyond classic modernization theories. (similarity 0.82)
• Modernization theory located blockage to progress inside non-Western societies (similarity 0.81)
• Non-Western time studies only matter as contrast cases for modernization theory (similarity 0.81)
• Empire generates the scholarly paradigms that then legitimize its interventions. (similarity 0.81)
• As academia grew critical, think tanks filled the role of supplying empire with theory. (similarity 0.81)
• Dependent countries had to westernize even when resisting the West (similarity 0.80)
• Modernization theory attributed underdevelopment to internal cultural deficits in the colonized (similarity 0.80)
• Modernization theory pathologized Middle Eastern people as lacking empathy (similarity 0.80)
• The West-civilizes-the-Eastern-despot claim chains climate theory through Orientalism to modernization theory (similarity 0.80)