Description
‘Political modernization’ means structural transformation needed in political domain in response to contemporary challenges. The concept might create confusions when scholars identify contemporary challenges and their political solutions based on Western experience and apply it universally, simply because contemporary challenges for which problem-solving should be prioritized or what the government and the people of different societies would perceive as ‘contemporary challenges’ vary. In recent ecological modernization studies, scholars like Janicke (1997), van Tatenhove and Leroy (2009) and Liang and Mol (2003) adopt the concept to explain structural transformation that is needed to better respond to environmental challenges. At the center of the revised traits of political modernization is ‘decentralization in governance’ first observed in well-functioning democracies. While the revised version is being tested against emerging economies in recent ecological modernization literature, this author suggests that developing countries like Malaysia are still stranded in earlier stage of political modernization, for having contemporary challenges that are identical with the three main characteristics of the classical political modernization theory, namely (1) Rationalization of authority; (2) Institutionalization of common interest and (3) Expansion of political participation.
