Introduction
Enlightenment began in 17th century and it can be described as awakening of modernity. Between 1561 and 1626, Francis Bacon proposed the application of scientific procedures and between 1596 and 1650, Rene Descartes proposed critical rationalism. Medieval philosophy applied ideas of Aristotle and Plato and combined them with Christian beliefs. During medieval era, philosophers accepted the methods applied by their predecessors and respected them.
When enlightenment came, some of the theories by Aristotle were disqualified because they were not applicable and by use of scientific methods, science was taking a dynamic turn.Other political and religious ideas which did not account for reason and logic were discarded. Social change is structural transformation, organization variations as reflected on individual’s performances & characteristics. Individual change is quite different from that of population to which he is a component. The term social change is mostly applied in politics, economies, sociology and history and entails failure and success of political systems. The term also includes paradigm shift and revolution (Dunthorne, 1991).
Enlightenment is characterized by individualism, practical application of science and experiments, use of reason, discard of oppressive church doctrines, political representation demand and education as a facilitator of social change. Earlier philosophers realized that people could chance their way of life and change the society as well instead of building it by God alone. The pooling of these ideas had a positive change. Due to the fact that people made their society, they as well should comprehend it fully (Hamilton, 1992). This brought up new proto-sciences which tried to explain the meaning of society and how to get a better one.
A conservative opinion was replaced by a progressive one and this made the conservatives critical, skeptical and cynical. The progressives instead had focus on reality and changes it came with and they came up with a concept called choice which explained that people could choose their destiny because life was not pre-ordained and basing on the choices they made, the outcome would be different. This was ethically implying that it was the responsibility of people for what was happening but it was not only by God’s will. Social change generally refers to social structure change, nature, social institution, social relations in a society etc.
Changes in behavior patterns in large numbers which are visible can also be perceived as social change. Deviance from values that are culturally inherited may cause rebellion against established systems thus resulting in a social disorder. Events that affects a number of individuals who share values in a society either for the better or worse are aspects of social change. Social change it mostly applied in sociology & social work. Among various forms of social change creation are direction action, advocacy, social change theater, community organizing, protesting, revolution, community practice & political activism.
Enlightenment is use of human reason to combat ignorance and develop a world that is better targeting aspects of religion and hereditary aristocracy which dominated the society. Social change concept implies a measure of particular characteristics of individuals in this group it not only leads to positive change but also to negative aspects that undermines existing lifestyles that are viewed as positive. According to this discussion, enlightenment clearly led to a social change (Gay,1973).
Enlightenment therefore led to either a negative or positive social change. For example, modernization and industrialization came up with simpler way of life which is a positive aspect but at the same time, pollution came up as a result which increases the health risks of society members therefore the need to build more health facilities.
Progress and stages of history
Progress has evolved from about 3000 years ago and has gained great influence. Progress was perceived by Greeks as a growth process and gradually unleashing the potential via fixed stages and eventually producing advancement. Another concept is in Jewish religion where the Bible emphasizes on prophets implying history image as holy and as guided by divine providence thus is irreversible or pre-determined and therefore necessary.
Progress took a twist during geographical discoveries where it was apparent that economical & political organizations as well as human societies and culture were not of a single piece. social arrangements are a variety in the whole world which is claimed to be due to different stages of progress reached by different societies where the primitive ones are perceived as being left in earlier stages & shows a past image to more civilized ones while to the primitive, these civilized ones are a future glimpse assuming they follow along similar trajectory with different speed but similar achievements. Progress is relative and is not entirely descriptive. A process may either be perceived as progressive depending on the preference values assumed which differ widely.
Stages of history created quite new invention that could cause its downfall but the downfall is not automatically negative because at every step there is a benefit to the humanity. Each stage thus, uplifts living standards of masses and is doomed to downfall at the same time as a result of class conflicts and internal contradictions. The last 2 stages are the only ones that are spared (Carver, 1982).
The 1st stage is known as primitive communism characterized by the following;
- Shared property; this means that no ownership concept that is above individual possessions and that to ensure survival, everything is a share by the tribe
- Hunting & gathering; that tribal societies are yet to come up with agriculture which is large scale thus they survive by daily struggle.
- Proto-democracy; that no concept of leadership yet and that’s why tribes have best warriors as their leaders during war.
This stage starts after humanity dawn during the stage of developing fire and it’s therefore convenient to live communally. Societies that are primitive communists are small with this size depending on environment. Humanity is equal with other animals as it has not invented ways of bending nature to fit its needs. The stage ends up with private property development like large scale farming which results to productive property e.g. as slaves and cattle (Marx & Engels, 1977).
The 2nd stage is known as slave society which crops up on appearing of private property in a class society. The stage is characterized by;
- Class; this is where aspects such as slaves, slaves owners and the ruling class.
- Statism; that state develops at this stage like a tool to use and control slaves by the slave owners.
- Agriculture; man cultivates large scale produce like plants & animals so as to support increasing population.
- Democracy & authoritarianism; They are differing aspects but they come up at the same stage where democracy comes first with development of republican state and totalitarian empire follows.
- Private property; this is where citizens owns property where land ownership becomes crucial during development of agriculture.
Slave owners acquire wealth while majority are poor and are slaves who work hard but are not paid. This society collapsed on exhausting itself as the need to conquer the slaves created even more problems. Aristocracy created in this period ultimately demolishes itself and enhances the society to cross the next period.
The 3rd stage is feudalism after elapsing of the slave society. It was popular during the dark ages of the Europeans.
- Aristocracy; The ruling of state is done by monarchy system where the positions are inherited or conquering the leadership.
- Theocracy; this is a period of religious leadership where only one religion is there and its leadership affect daily life.
- Heredity classes; at times there is formation of castes and a class to which one belonged may be determined at birth and no advancement e.g. India
- Nation-state;This is where formation of the nations is from fallen empires at times to rebuild them into empires again e.g. England change from province to empire.
During this stage, class system exists like lords, kings, and serfs most of who inherits the title out of good or bad. Society’s trade with other nations creating merchant class then capitalist class emerges who are driven by motives to acquire profits but they are hindered to get more by feudal society.
The 4th stage is capitalism which comes when feudal system overthrown by the capitalists. Capitalism is categorized by free-market economy, private property by capitalists, parliamentary democracy though centralized congress, wages according to contracts signed with an employer, warfare when trying to raise profits, and monopolistic tendencies created from most vicious business entities.
Socialism is the 5th stage and brings revolution against capitalists. The stage is characterized by decentralized planned economy, common property, council democracy, and labor vouchers. This society is described to have come up from self conscious dynamism of vast majority.
Communism comes after socialism where everyone in the society has a lot of personal property and nobody exploits another for personal gains through vast monopolies ownership and class system is ended. It has features like statelessness where there lacks a government, classlessness, no property ownership, there is no money and everyone gets their needs for free (Ray, 1999).
Progress and stages of history are co-related in that as we transformed from one stage to another, we were making progress. These stages of history clearly defines that we definitely progressed from the worse to the better (Manson, 2000).
Rationalization and bureaucracy
The term bureau existed in ancient times in Western Europe at around 18th century which referred to as a writing desk or a work place for officials. Original meaning in French was baize which is used as a cover to the desks. Bureaucracy came before French revolution in 1789 and it spread to the other parts. Scribes are earlier examples of bureaucrats who utilized the Sumerian scripts. Later, bureaucracies expanded quickly with expansion of the government in larger empires e.g. Achaemenid Persia and its functions increased. The Chinese bureaucracy however was the most modern.
As governments grew bigger, especially the time of industrial revolution, modern bureaucracies arose. Along with it came nepotism and corruption in various countries leading to reforms in the civil service at around 19th century. Rationalization came near the end of nineteenth century and was first applied to solve mass production problems. This led to techniques that regulated amount of labor, materials, power, and supervision deliverance to ensure continuity of production. This process eventually led to mechanical & electronic automation (Ritzer, 1993).
Rationalization entails 2 major aspects. The size & number of institutions as well as collaboration of these institutions no matter their number to make sure minority interests aren’t duplicated through the system and ensure that these institutions don’t pursue similar detailed specialty. On the other hand, bureaucracy is structure & set of rules usually in government and large organizations. Adhocracy as opposed to bureaucracy is a standardized procedure that dictates execution of a lot of processes within a hierarchy, power divisions & relationships. Practically, execution and interpretation of this policy produces an informal influence.
Bureaucracy is a formal & informal pattern that connects actors in an organization through information flow and network of cooperation. It is a sociology & political science concept which refers to administrative execution and legal rules enforcement in a social organization. It can also be explained as a good and defined division of labor in an administration among individuals and offices. Examples of bureaucracies are governments, corporations, armed forces, courts, schools, ministries, hospitals and non-governmental organizations. Rationalization is a matter of delivering quality and not about reducing costs.
The first impact in rationalization is increasing costs. If for example transferring staff is necessary, it’s expensive and in this process, jobs are lost and further implications are felt. Rationalization which aims at creation of larger institution is misguided because the institution size is significant on its production quality or its ranking in the world. Collaboration in procurement and its willingness to pool resources is more significant in an institution. The affected parties must be aware if rationalization is to be implemented and failure to this might create bigger problems (Giddens, 1993).
Implementing bureaucracy in an organization where information flow within it is enhanced among the parties, then rationalization which aims at quality deliverance rises up.
Organic solidarity and meritocracy
Organic solidarity is a social cohesion existing in individual’s dependence in advanced society.As labor division increases, it becomes common. Although each person has different interest and values, and performs different work, the society survival relies on each other dependence to perform specific tasks. Mechanical solidarity is a bond existing within the society where they perform same tasks as any other society.
When one person dies, and is not replaced, a society does not change due to the fact that all other individuals did similar things as the dead member. Collective conscience is identical among every member and this bond is derived from entire social system dependence and not from other individuals. As societies modernized and became industrialized, labor became increasingly specialized and divided. Individuals did not perform same tasks anymore and did not share interests or perspectives in life. Meritocracy was stated first by Michael Young in 1958.He stated that the individual social place is determined by IQ and effort and this social system leads to social revolution and that elites who are arrogant and are not connected to the public are overthrown by masses (Durkheim, 1938).
Meritocracy is a government system or in an organization where appointments and responsibilities are given on the basis of ability or merit & talents rather than class privilege or oligarchy, cronyism or friends, plutocracy or wealth, nepotism, seniority or gerontocracy, popularity, or determinants of political power and social position. In this society, there are rewards to those who demonstrate talent and are competent.
Meritocracy concepts consider intelligence and effort which cannot be accurately measured this shows there is guesswork and inherent flaw. Merit is whatever that leads to success and the successful people are portraying merit in success. The governing principles of meritocracy are: Work placement is awarded basing on merit and not expertise or experience although seniority, expertise and experience lead to greater merit, Opportunities conditions under job application principle, and specification of job attainment reward. Not every meritocrat operate this way but they mostly evaluate job equalities and inequality structure using personalities and human abilities that all of them perform tasks in the best way they can.
Organic solidarity can be compared to animal body organs which have a specific task and function & rely on each other to perform its work. Failure of one organ fails the others too. The body is the society and it fails to function when one aspect fails. This dependence on each other for social and physical survival is now organic solidarity and doesn’t cause disintegration of the society (Miles, 2001).
Many believe meritocracy is good and more productive and this allows a clear distinction of merit and not arbitrary like social connections, race and sex. Therefore, labor division in the system of organic solidarity could be done through the process of meritocracy where one is given a task which is best suited as demonstrated by his talents. Quality production is therefore expected when these two aspects are combined. Individuals assigned to perform the work may not be experienced which is risky to the entire organization as they are interdependent. It is also facing criticism as a myth because it aims to justify status quo.
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