Convergence of social orders

A convergence theory in the social sciences is based on the assumption that all copies of historically occurring social systems develop in the same direction namely towards the achievement of a model which can be found already in the presence.

Convergence of East and West

After World War II there arose the intellectual question of whether or not the two blocs of developed societies, and the many less developed ones, would evolve in a common direction. Some argued for convergence around the requirements of the modern economy. Others argued for divergence along lines set by political and cultural factors.^[1] The idea of convergence of the two systems was put forward by Pitirim Sorokin in the book "Russia and the United States," written in 1944. Such ideas was supported by John Galbraith, Walt Rostow, François Perroux, Jan Tinbergen and others.

Some authors consider this concept in teleological terms. Both economic systems are not perfect in terms of advanced culture and humanistic ideals and systems further confrontation is fraught with sharp class conflict in the international arena, which can lead to the death of civilization. Given these risks, one can save the world civilization by convergence systems, creating new forms of socio-economic and cultural life, which would concentrate the best that is available in both systems.

Other authors consider the objective changes which both systems was forced to make towards one another despite of own ideologies.

1921. New Economic Policy (NEP) in USSR was a more capitalism-oriented economic policy, deemed necessary after the Russian Civil War of 1917 to 1922, to foster the economy of the country, which was almost ruined. NEP was canceled to 1928, but many of the post-Mao economic reforms of Deng Xiaoping in China was influenced by it.^[2]

1933. New Deal of Franklin D. Roosevelt was forced by the Great Depression and contained the state intervention in the economy regulation. New Deal instituted significant social insurance policies.

1978. Chinese economic reform started by reformists within the Communist Party of China, led by Deng Xiaoping. It allowed China to become the second economy in the world.

1989. Perestroika in the USSR.

References

1. J. W. Meyer, J. Boli-Bennett, C. Chase-Dunn: Convergence and Divergence in Development. In: Annual Review of Sociology, 1975, H. 1, S. 223-246
2. Pantsov, Alexander; Levine, Steven I. (2015). Deng Xiaoping: A Revolutionary Life. New York: Oxford University Press. p. 373. ISBN 9780199392032. Retrieved 2016-02-05. It will be recalled that [Deng Xiaoping] himself had studied Marxism from the works of the Bolshevik leaders who had propounded NEP. It is obvious that he drew on ideas from NEP when he spoke of his own reforms. In 1985, he openly acknowledged that 'perhaps' the most correct model of socialism was the New Economic Policy of the USSR.

Further reading

• Sorokin P. A., Mutual convergence of the United States and the U.S.S.R. to the mixed sociocultural type, International Journal of Comparative Sociology 1(2), 1960, pp. 143–176.
• Gaitonde V. A. , An Answer to the Theory of Convergence, Social Scientist 3(5), 1974, pp. 38–51.
• Kelley D. R. , The Soviet Debate on the Convergence of the American & Soviet Systems, Polity 6(2), 1973, pp. 174–196.
• Weinberg I. , The Problem of the Convergence of Industrial Societies: A Critical Look at the State of a Theory, Comparative Studies in Society and History 11, 1969, pp. 1–15.
• Lauterbach A. , The 'Convergence' Controversy Revisited, Kyklos 29(4), 1976, pp. 733–754.
• Сахаров А. Д. Размышления о прогрессе, мирном сосуществовании и интеллектуальной свободе, 1968.