Democracy and Populism in the Process of Modernization

• Main Author: Maria Marczewska-Rytko
• Format: Article
• Language: Bulgarian
• Published: South-West University "Neofit Rilski", Department of Sociology, Academic seminar "Media and Education" 2012-04-01
• Series: Проблеми на постмодерността
• Subjects: democracy; delegative democracy; populism; modernization; social mobilization; social participation
• Online Access: https://pmpjournal.org/index.php/pmp/article/view/141

The concept of modernization and the concept of social mobility contained in it constitute the principal categories in understanding the nature of populism. There are many theories of modernization that foreground different impulses for development and factors determining the pace, process and the final shape of the process under discussion. The functional approach and the evolutionary approach are among the most important ones. Social participation is important element of democracy but perceived in different way by suppoters of direct and indirect democracy. Delegative democracy may be transformed into Robert Dahl's poliarchy system. The process of social mobilization constitutes a part of a big transformation, since it presents the mechanism of rapid inclusion of large social groups in the new system of values. This mechanism assumes the coexistence of modern and traditional sectors. In populism the expansion of rights tends to occur as a result of compromise within the framework of class alliances or through a system of co-opting marginal groups to the system. Social mobilization constitutes a complicated process combing the disintegration of the existing structure of the system and the final reintegration of the society.