Economic Theory, Democracy, and the Progressive Church

The fundamentals of the wealth and religious freedom of the American Dream started around 1600s. The beginning of the American Dream started in the middle of 1700s where people were thinking America as a land of freedom, liberty, opportunity, and happiness. There was an illusion that the American Dream was alive for everyone in the year of 1831-1832. In the year 1930, people started to expect the government to help them to achieve the American Dream. After the World War II end, the government expected to have more people enter into the middle class with the responsibilities of improving the citizens’ living such as providing equal of opportunities and creating new technologies. Our American Dream should be equal for everyone by creating the

That this was also the decade in which globalization came into full swing is more than a minor inconvenience for its advocates” (Rodrick). If globalization is supposed to present an advantage to developing countries, why have there been so many setbacks? Indeed, both sides will have its winners and losers regardless of which side of the development coin they live on, but for the most part globalization has lifted millions out of poverty, improved the standard of living, and increased life expectancy rates all while keeping developed nations relatively competitive to their developing counterparts. Globalization’s value is that it seeks to create an economic equilibrium in the world, where parties are free from barriers and can benefit from one another through a more efficient allocation of resources. This allows all participating nations to contribute to an integrated economy and where all nations willing to embrace globalization have the potential to benefit. Regardless, the path to successful integration to the global economy has not always been easy. There is contention towards globalization as some argue that it is detrimental to developed nations, while many developing countries that were forced to hastily open up their markets and integrate failed. However, if implemented properly, globalization has proven that it can benefit all parties involved and that the potential gains outweigh the losses.

Over time some societies become more modern than others creating an unequal balance among other states globally. It is the thought that the modernization theory in some societies, are left behind because of advances in technology and within the economy also (Macionis and Plummer, 2012:p 306). Rostow (1990: p12) suggested that the modernization theory is created by an outside government or corporation to introduce new technologies and build industries to make money. As the four phases of modernization are explained above, it is simple to understand how these societies built upon modernization can create global inequalities and unequal balance within an underdeveloped society. However,

Sociology studies and defines the diverse aspects of some of the most basic human behaviour, particularly focusing on the purpose and the value that human behaviour holds. Max Weber, the highly influential philosopher (born 1864 – died 1920), documented and observed human behaviour, focusing primarily in his text, “The Protestant Ethic and the Spirit of Capitalism”, on social action. Weber determines that social action is the behaviour or action of an individual, or actor, in the presence of another individual. The specific role of social action is to monitor the influence of another on an individual’s work output and how their behaviour changes and the direction of their actions determined. Weber claimed that “a correct causal interpretation of concrete course of action, is arrived at when the overt action and the motives have both been correctly apprehended and at the same time their relation has become meaningfully comprehensible.”

It is with his first few sentences that author, Nathan Hatch, lets the readers know about the scope and the reason for his book The Democratization of American Christianity. Nathan Hatch, who is currently the president of Wake Forest University in Wake Forest, NC and was previously the dean and provost at Notre Dame, states, “This book is about the cultural and religious history of the early American republic and the enduring structures of American Christianity. It argues both that the theme of democratization is central to understanding the development of American Christianity, and that the years of the early republic are the most crucial in revealing that process.” (3) The freedom and liberty that were experienced by people in America’s infancy bled into all aspects of life: government, family, and religion. It was this freedom that gave many in the church the boldness to either go and start churches, or serve as a leader in the church: things that were not an option during their time in England. A great deal of church growth in early America can be attributed to this freedom and the conversion of the masses to the various denominations that were available to the early Americans, choices that they did not have while in England. In telling the story of the growth of Protestantism in America, Hatch regales the readers with stories and information about a fascinating time in the history of the American Protestantism. It was a time filled with such varied and unique

Globalization is one of the most discussed and controversial terms in modern history, while many people believe free trade drive global economic growth, create jobs, and lower prices for consumers. Contrary, others argue global cooperation mainly abuse, underpaid their employees lastly benefits from tax havens. Regardless of someone’s personal view, globalization is an ancient and profound system based on international strategies of which economic, political, and sociocultural relations are interconnected across long geographical boundaries. This Integration occurs as technological advances simplify and facilitated the trading of goods and services, the flow of capital, and migration of people across the globe. Lughod Provides a comparative

In most cases U.S. citizens who are in poverty are in relative poverty in relation to the rest of the U.S. population; whereas in the world as a whole a greater number of people are in absolute poverty and are barely able to survive on their income, or wages and earnings, and they have very little to no wealth since it is impossible to save any of their money. Ethnocentrism makes it difficult to obtain a clear picture of the conditions of poverty and inequality in other nations and cultures. There are many theories concerning the causes and solution for poverty in the global economy. The two major theories are the modernization theory which explains inequality in terms of technological and cultural difference between nations, and the dependency theory which explains poverty in terms of the historical exploitation of poor, or low-income, nations by rich, or high-income, nations. This theory has manifest itself in a new way in today’s world in the form of neocolonialism; economic exploitation by multinational corporations.

From my analysis of the film Life and Debt and my readings, I have come to the opinion that economic globalization works in favor of powerful and wealthy countries while undermining the interests of poorer, less developed countries to cultivate their own economy and establish a substantial quality of life for their civilians. In the film Life and Debt, this situation is exemplified through Jamaica’s decades-long grapple with economic globalization in their involvement with the IMF, World Bank, and various trade agreements. The reality of loan and trade agreements sunk in when instead of contributing to economic development of the country, they restricted it. Gradually, Jamaica was plummeted into socio-economic deterioration. As Jamaica’s seemingly prospective negotiations with these institutions unravelled, economic globalization revealed itself as a force for rich and powerful nations to dominate poor and less developed nations.

The two theories which shall be compared are the modernisation theory and Neo Liberalism. The modernisation theory is a market oriented development theory which states that low income countries can develop economically if they give up their traditional ways which often can be dated back centuries and take on more modern economic principles, technologies and cultural values which comprise of an emphasis on productive investment and savings.

I don't feel that dependency theory suffers quite the level of bias that applies to modernization theory. That being said, I do think that dependency theory is a bit too narrow in it's view. One example can be summed up with the statement "[dependency theory] considers ties with multinational corporations as detrimental." (Shah, 2014; par 3).

This is clearly seen in the centering of the Eurocentric theory of modernization. Modernization theory explains that all countries are on a trajectory towards modernization that consists of the same stages with the end goal of taking a "traditional" society and making it "modern". Modern in this context is understood to be Western and modernization theory according to Greenhalgh is actually westernization, which does not fundamentally provide modernization. Moreover, Greenhalgh and political economy of reproduction challenge if modernization is inherently a positive transformation, especially when linked to westernization (Greenhalgh 1995:16). However, according to demographic theorists women's status, and therefore their fertility narratives, are improved by modernization, implicitly stating that westernization is essentially better for women (Greenhalgh 1995: 10). Moreover, demography theory constructs low-fertility as explicitly better and "progressive", a factor political economy of reproduction disputes though its analysis of the negative effects of conflating westernization with modernization (Greenhalgh 1995: 16). Greenhalgh states, "What is good is culturally conditioned", a factor that demographic theories overlook and therefore do not account for the ways low

Attitude over Amount The American Christian Church over the years, as a whole, has somewhere along the way forgotten the purpose for giving and tithing. Lots of American Christians seem to be so focused on giving the ten percent to the church, no more no less. The principle of giving ten percent of your income came from Old Testament characters in the Bible and God’s commands to them. However, Jesus came and addressed giving and tithing more than just a handful of times. Whenever He would talk about giving, He would not focus on the amount that you give, but the heart behind what you are giving. We so often hear the phrase, “cheerful giver” and totally look over what exactly that means because in church we hear it so often but, how would

Weber has been considered as an expert on origination of capitalism. His most famous work is The Protestant Ethic and the Spirit of Capitalism. Weber thesis regarding capitalism is rather considered as an argument counter to Marxist thesis (which was regarding primacy of base over superstructure). Weber discussed in his book that capitalism was resulted by Protestantism which was a religious movement or more specifically speaking Calvinism. However any Calvinist who has gone through catechism would have known that seeking a sign of selection by God in economic success, is not a right thing to do; therefore it is a travesty to Weber's thesis (Kilcullen, 1996).

Modernization theory is a hypothesis used to clarify the procedure of modernization that a country experiences as it moves from a simple society to a modern one. Dependency theory is the idea that assets spill out of a fringe of poor and immature states to a centre of rich states, enhancing the latter to the detriment of the former. These two theories contrast in that modernization theory clarifies how created states work and develop, whereas dependency theory outline how work and develop are restricted. Modernization theory clarifies the advancement and improvement of innovation in more steady regions of the world (Culp, 2014). Dependency theory looks at the impacts that modernization in one district has on different parts of the world. Dependency theory is more comprehensive than modernization theory. Modernization theory emphasises that instruction, innovation and broad communications are noteworthy reasons why created districts pull ahead from others. Be that as it may, modernization theory does not operate on a worldwide scale where the assets, work and power originate to make this advancement conceivable. In modernization theory, the majority of the advancements that local areas or states make originate from an aggregate interior exertion.

Although it is right that globalization promotes free trade among the states and unites them, but there are also negative outcomes, which states whether rich or poor try to protect their own interests? These negative outcomes of globalization have made the dependency theory significant in describing the state of affairs in the present world. Poor countries attempt to protect their national markets and become self-reliant (Hewison, 1999). Self-reliance can be seen as supporting a strategy of controlled relations with the world economy. Poor nations should only approve relations on the condition that the relations will enhance the societal and financial well being of the larger population. However, endeavour by the peripheral states to oppose the impact of dependency can result in results in financial sanctions and/or military attack (Sen, 2010). One example of such resentment against globalization is “localism“that surfaced during the financial crisis in Thailand (Hewison, 1999). Localism is an illustration of populist response to the changes and disparities created by globalization. Localism gained substantial energy from the Thai King’s speech in 1997, where he recommended a self-contained economy to counter the negative effects