Historische Prozesse sozialer Mobilisierung / Historical Processes of Social Mobilization

Abstract

Abstract The processes of social mobilization in which particularistic-parochial roles and collectivities are broken up have a crucial importance for societal modernization. This paper analyzes two elementary and long-term processes of social mobilization: urbanization and literacy development in 94 countries between 1850 and 1965 using quantitative aggregative data. It is shown that the relationship between the two processes of mobilization has changed radically in the course of history: while the ‘old’ nations were characterized by a gradual development of literacy of a mainly rural population, the characteristic of the ‘new’ nations is an accelerated urbanization of a largely illiterate population. This development leads to rising pressures on the political system of the ‘new’ nations without commensurately enlarging their capacities. It results in an increase of collective violence and political instability. The problems of controlling the mobilization and of institutionalizing political participation, therefore, becomes a focus of interest.