Extinction of the Welfare State: Revisiting The History of Modernization Theory

JVF Conference Papers

It is widely believed that modernization theory is an outdated theoretical concept developed by a number of American positivists after the end of World War II. Nowadays many researchers view it as a naïve attempt to reconstruct the post-war global order according to a scientifically proven recipe for promoting and supporting liberal welfare states all over the world. Indeed, after “the end of history” promise in the beginning of the 1990s, it seemed that the need for welfarism had faded away.

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