Development of the modern world in the context of the global transformation of humanity. Where is humanity going? Trends in the development of the modern world Trends in the development of the modern world history

1.1. The main trends in the development of the modern world as a challenge to global development.

1.2. Philosophy of global development: concept, concepts, approaches.

1.3. Socio-cultural and sociopolitical aspects of global development in the context of the teachings of Western globalists.

conclusions

Questions for self-control

literature

Key concepts and terms

globalization, globalistics, global information networks, global markets, economic globalization, global community, "clash of civilizations", Westernization, "McDonaldization", regionalization, megatrends, economic globalization, political globalization, cultural globalization, global structural changes, "third wave of democratization" , the global transformation of humanity

Objectives and objectives of the section

Analyze the essence of economic relationships that began to grow rapidly in the late XX - early XXI century;

Highlight the stages of the formation of globalization in the context of the periodization of M. Cheshkov;

Substantiate the formation of globalization as a leading trend in the modern world;

To study various aspects of the development of globalization, paying attention to the directions of development of economic globalization, determines all processes;

Reveal what factors contributed to the formation of the global economy;

Identify socio-cultural trends that have manifested themselves in the context of the global transformation of humanity.

The main development trends of the modern world as a challenge to global development

The relevance of the study of this topic is that we observe the contradictory consequences of the influence of global development processes in modern society, management processes, public administration.

In the most generalized sense, "global development" means "contraction of the world", on the one hand, and the rapid growth of self-awareness, on the other. According to E. Giddens, globalization is a consequence of modernity, and modernity is a product of the development of the West. Global development as a leading trend in the development of the modern world is understood as a fundamental change in the world order, as a result of which national borders began to lose their original meaning, caused by the development of information and communication technologies, the dictate of mass culture. You can often hear that "the planet is shrinking" and "distances are disappearing", which indicates the penetration of globalization processes into all spheres of life, including education.

The topic of global development is extremely dynamic, since in modern conditions globalization is accelerating, significant changes are taking place in the practice of international business, which are reflected in numerous publications on globalistics - a new branch of knowledge that studies planetary processes. The problem of global development, and hence global governance, is extremely controversial and controversial. Researchers-globalists, political and public figures of various countries, managers of leading transnational corporations adhere and ardently defend not only in theory, but also in practice, opposite views, which leads to acute international conflicts. Global changes are not only rapid, but very often those that cannot be predicted, therefore the alternatives to globalization look so opposite, threatening the existence of mankind.

At the end of the XX - beginning of the XXI century, a global revolution took place that embraced all countries and peoples, a network of the most economic interconnections that began to grow rapidly. As a result of the global revolution, the following occurs:

Deepening interconnections between major financial centers;

Close technological cooperation among firms;

Global information networks linking the world into one whole;

National markets, which can be seen less and less as a criterion for market segmentation;

Combination of intense competition with the expansion of elements of interaction and cooperation;

Internationalization of industrial ties in high-tech industries based on direct investment;

Formation of global markets.

Recently, heated discussions began to take place around the problems of global development:

1) "global competition", which tends to grow;

2) "globalization of education";

3) "economic globalization";

4) "cultural globalization";

5) "political globalization";

6) "global civil society";

7) "global consciousness";

8) "global outlook";

9) "global world order".

Globalization can be viewed as a civilizational shift, which has already become a social reality and has occurred as a result of global development.

It reflected:

Intensification of cross-border economic, political, social and cultural ties;

The historical period (or historical era) that followed the end of the Cold War;

The triumph of the American (Western European) value system based on a combination of a neoliberal economic program and a political democratization program;

A technological revolution with multiple social implications;

The inability of national states to independently overcome global problems (demographic, environmental, observance of human rights and freedoms, the proliferation of nuclear weapons) that require joint global efforts. The very term "globalization" entered the international political and scientific circulation in the sixties. The beginning of the historical process, which undoubtedly determined the architecture of the modern world at the beginning of the 21st century, is attributed by researchers to several centuries ago: the time range covers the period from 1500 to 1800.

In the context of M. Cheshkov's periodization, the following stages of global development are distinguished:

1) the prehistory of globalization (proto-globalization) - from the Neolithic revolution to the axial time;

2) the prehistory of globalization (the emergence of a global community) - from the axial time to the era of the Enlightenment and the first industrial revolution;

3) the actual history of globalization (the formation of a global community) - the last 200 years.

Since the late 60s pp. XX century, globalization is becoming a leading trend in modern development. According to Western philosophers, the world has entered a phase of "global uncertainty"

A historical retrospective allows us to determine at the end of the twentieth century. two critical periods contributed to the deepening of global development:

1) the collapse of the USSR and the SFRY;

2) the global financial crisis 1997-1998 pp.

There are various theoretical approaches to assessing the globalization process

1) The functionalist approach, notes the role of national states in saving national economies from the harmful effects of "hybrid" and "cosmopolitan" globalization;

2) an apologetic approach, emphasizes the role of global markets in innovation processes and, accordingly, the evolution towards neoliberal doctrine, seeks to limit state interference in the processes of "cosmopolitan globalization" as much as possible;

3) a technological approach, in the context of which the main attention is paid to the latest "cybernetic" technologies as a condition of selective, "hybrid globalization", which allows peripheral countries to integrate into the global economy while maintaining their own regional specifics.

The typology of the paradigm of understanding global development as a historical phenomenon was proposed by the Dutch researcher J. Pieter:

- "Clash of civilizations" - the fragmentation of the world is inevitable due to the existence of civilizational differences rooted in cultural differentiation, the determining of which are national, cultural and religious factors;

- "McDonaldization" - the homogenization of cultures, carried out by transnational corporations, in the context of which, under the banner of modernization, the phenomena of Westernization, Europeanization, Americanization have become widespread. The McDonald restaurant and most of its maximum derivatives are products of American society and have been aggressively exported to another world. For example, today the MacDonald firm opens many more of its branches abroad than in the United States. Already about half of its profits, the company does not receive in the United States. Although "MacDonald" is popular all over the world, however, at the same time, it meets with resistance from intellectuals and public leaders. MacDonald and many other McDonaldized business areas have spread throughout the world, but continue to maintain their American foundation and their American roots;

- "Hybridization" - a wide range of intercultural mutual influence, leading to both mutual enrichment and the emergence of new cultural traditions.

Thus, one should talk about three perspectives of global development as a social phenomenon:

1) socio-economic - economic globalization studies the formation of global markets and the strategy of behavior of corporations and international financial and economic institutions, the prospects for the formation of fundamentally new economic relations and types of economy;

2) socio-political - political globalization studies the role of the state and other subjects of international life in a globalized world, the prospects for the formation of a global civilizational society, forms general legal principles and norms;

Sociocultural - cultural globalization studies profound changes in cultural stereotypes in connection with the latest scientific, technical, social innovations, the prospects for intercultural and intercultural dialogue in an information and communication space.

As a result of global development taking place in the modern world, new trends of the modern world have formed, new political actors have appeared on the political arena, they began to dictate "their own rules of the game", globalization has emerged as a determining factor in modern economic life, which determines a new quality of internationalization of the world economy.

In our opinion, economic globalization determines all processes and requires:

Adapt their economic institutions to new requirements;

Strengthen the power of capital owners - investors, multinational corporations and global financial institutions;

Approve the formation of new international mechanisms for the accumulation and movement of capital;

Promote organic entry into this irreversible process, which no state in the world can resist;

Support the virtualization of economic borders between states in the context of globalization.

In the most generalized sense, "global development" means "contraction of the world", on the one hand, and the rapid growth of self-awareness, on the other. According to E. Giddens, globalization is a consequence of modernity, and modernity is a product of the development of the West. Under "globalization" as the leading trend in the development of the modern world is understood a fundamental change in the world order, as a result of which national borders began to lose their original meaning, caused by the development of information and communication technologies, the dictates of mass culture. Global development, according to some Western experts, is the most fundamental challenge that modern history has faced in recent years.

Discussions about global development as the main trend of modern times can be grouped into four discourses:

1) civilizational, or regional;

2) ideological;

3) academic;

4) tender.

Some Western authors are confident that in all areas of global development (economic, political, cultural, social, anthropological), the most promising and advanced is the economic one. Different countries react differently to globalization, since historical, political, cultural and economic characteristics affect how the main trends in the development of the modern world are reflected and affect the formation and development of such a phenomenon as globalization. It is no coincidence that new sciences and disciplines have recently appeared: "global philosophy", "global political science", "global sociology", "global communication studies", "global cultural studies". A new conceptual and categorical apparatus has appeared - "global thinking", "global governance," global civil society "," global man "," global network society "," global outlook "," global trends "," global market "," global information networks "," global culture "," global information technologies "," global web ", which have a lot of contact with other social sciences.

A number of factors contributed to the formation of the global economy:

Strengthening the integration of financial markets;

The telecommunications revolution made it easier for corporations to establish permanent contacts with all countries of the world, conclude agreements with partners located anywhere in the world;

Expansion of the scope of activity of transnational corporations, which have powerful technological and financial resources, which allows them to locate production throughout the world in such a way as to achieve the greatest efficiency through the use of cheap labor;

The refusal of transnational corporations from the Fordist system of labor organization and the transition to a flexible system of using labor, makes it possible to adapt to constant changes in the world economy in order to maintain their positions and conquer new markets;

The growing participation of third world countries in world trade, as well as in the global investment process and the international division of labor;

The rapid growth in our time of interdependence between countries, within which no country in the world can no longer stay on the sidelines of the world economy and lead an isolated, autarkic existence.

The main basic megatrends in the development of the modern world as a challenge to global development are reduced to the global civilization process and are reflected in the socio-cultural sphere. it:

1) "cultural polarization";

2) "cultural assimilation";

3) "cultural hybridization";

4) "cultural isolation".

1. "Cultural polarization". It was under the sign of this megatrend that a significant part of the 20th century passed: we are talking about the confrontation between two camps - capitalist and socialist. The main mechanism for the implementation of this megatrend is the polarization and segmentation of the political and geo-economic map of the world, accompanied by the formation of military-political and economic regional associations (coalitions, alliances).

2. "Cultural assimilation" is based on the conclusion that there is no alternative to "Westernization". The process of establishing universal (universal) forms and rules in international relations is becoming increasingly important.

3. "Cultural hybridization" is complemented by the processes of transcultural convergence and the formation of translocal cultures - diaspora cultures as opposed to traditional cultures that are localized and strive for national-state identity. The world is gradually turning into a complex mosaic of translocal cultures, penetrating deeply into each other and forming new cultural regions with a network structure. The intensification of communications and intercultural interaction, the development of information technologies, contributing to the further diversification of the diverse world of human cultures, oppose their absorption by some universal "global culture".

4. "Cultural isolation". The XX century gave many examples of isolation and self-isolation of individual countries, regions, political blocs (“cordons sanitaire” or “iron curtain.” to the power of authoritarian and totalitarian regimes, resorting to such measures as socio-cultural autarchy, restrictions on information and humanitarian contacts, freedom of movement, cruel censorship, etc. Therefore, in the future, we will define the concepts, concepts and approaches to the analysis of globalization.

Ford publishes a report annually that provides an analysis of key trends in consumer sentiment and behavior. The report is based on data from surveys conducted by the company among thousands of residents of different countries.

Rusbase got acquainted with the global research and chose 5 main trends that are now defining our world.

Five trends that are now defining our world

Victoria Kravchenko

Trend 1: New format of the good life

In the modern world, "more" now does not always mean "better", and wealth is no longer synonymous with happiness. Consumers have learned to enjoy not the very fact of owning something, but how this or that item affects their lives. Those who continue to flaunt their wealth are only irritating.

“Wealth is no longer synonymous with happiness”:

• India - 82%
• Germany - 78%
• China - 77%
• Australia - 71%
• Canada - 71%
• USA - 70%
• Spain - 69%
• Brazil - 67%
• UK - 64%

I am annoyed by people who flaunt their wealth.»:

• 77% - of respondents aged 18-29
• 80% - of respondents aged 30-44
• 84% - of respondents aged 45+

Real life examples confirming the growing popularity of this trend:

1. Benefit from labor results is more important than profit

Example 1:

Rustam Sengupta for a significant part of his life went to success in the traditional way. He earned a degree from one of the leading business schools and took a high-paying job in consulting. And so, once returning to his native village in India, he realized that the locals lack the most basic things, suffering from problems with electricity and a lack of clean drinking water.

Seeking to help people, he founded Boond, a non-profit company dedicated to the development of alternative energy sources in northern India.

Example 2:

When New York lawyer Zen Kaufman began working part-time at her brother’s burger shop on weekends, seeking to diversify the monotony of office work, she could not imagine that this case could change her life so much. After moving to London a year later, instead of sending resumes to law firms, she bought herself a street food truck and started her own company, Bleecker Street Burger.

2. Free time is the best medicine

Millennials (ages 18–34) are increasingly looking to escape the hustle and bustle of the city and addiction to social media, choosing a vacation that is more unusual and interesting than lying on the beach at an All Inclusive hotel. Instead, they want to make the most of their vacation, favoring yoga clubs and culinary tours in Italy.

The total volume of the world industry of such extraordinary travels today is estimated at 563 billion dollars. In 2015 alone, more than 690 million wellness tours were organized worldwide.

Trend 2: the value of time is now measured differently

Time is no longer a valuable resource: in the modern world, punctuality loses its attractiveness, and the tendency to postpone everything for later is considered absolutely normal.

72% of those surveyed around the world agreed with the statement “Z Anias, which I used to consider a waste of time, no longer seem useless to me».

Over time, the emphasis shifted and people began to recognize the need for the simplest things. For example, to the question “ What do you think is the most productive pastime? " the answers were as follows:

• sleep - 57%,
• surfing the Internet - 54%,
• reading - 43%,
• watching TV - 36%,
• communication in social networks - 24%
• dreams - 19%

British students have a long tradition of taking a gap year after leaving school and before entering university in order to better understand which path to take in their future life. A similar phenomenon is gaining more and more popularity among American students. According to the American Gap Association, over the past few years, the number of students who decided to take a one-year break has grown by 22%.

According to a Ford survey, 98% young people who decided to take a year off after school said that this break helped them decide on their path in life.

Instead of "now" or "later" people now prefer to use the word "someday", which does not reflect a specific time frame for a particular task. In psychology, there is a term "procrastination" - a person's tendency to constantly transfer important matters to later.

The number of respondents around the world who agreed with the statement “ Procrastination helps me develop my creativity.»:

• India - 63%
• Spain - 48%
• UK - 38%
• Brazil - 35%
• Australia - 34%
• USA - 34%
• Germany - 31%
• Canada - 31%
• China - 26%

1. We do not know how not to be distracted by trifles

Have you ever faced a situation where after a few hours of searching for the information you need on the Internet, you find yourself reading completely useless, but extremely exciting articles? We have all experienced something similar.

In this regard, the success of the Pocket application is interesting, which postpones the study of fascinating publications found in the search process for later and helps to focus on what is really important right now, but without the risk of losing sight of something interesting.

At the moment, 22 million users have already used the service, and the amount of postponed publications is equal to two billion.

2. Meditation instead of punishment

Guilty Baltimore Elementary Students should no longer stay after school. Instead, the school has developed a special program, Holistic Me, which invites students to do yoga or meditation to learn how to manage their emotions. Since the program launched in 2014, the school has not had to expel a single student.

3. If you want employees to work efficiently - prohibit overtime

The working day of the advertising agency Heldergroen in the suburbs of Amsterdam always ends at exactly 18:00 and not a second later. At the end of the day, steel cables forcibly lift all desktops and laptops into the air, and employees can use the vacant floor space for dancing and yoga to work less and enjoy life more.

“It has become a kind of ritual for us, dividing the line between work and personal life,” explains Sander Veenendaal, the company's creative director.

Trend 3: the problem of choice has never been more urgent

Modern stores offer consumers an incredibly wide range of choices, which complicates the decision-making process, and as a result, shoppers simply refuse to buy. This diversity leads to the fact that people now prefer to try many different options without buying anything.

Number of people surveyed around the world who agreed with the statement "The Internet offers many more options than I really need.":

• China - 99%
• India - 90%
• Brazil - 74%
• Australia - 70%
• Canada - 68%
• Germany - 68%
• Spain - 67%
• UK - 66%
• USA - 57%

With the advent of the selection process, it becomes unclear. The sheer number of special offers misleads buyers.

The number of respondents who agreed with the statement “After I buy something, I start to doubt whether I made the right choice?”:

• 60% of respondents aged 18-29
• 51% of respondents aged 30-44
• 34% of respondents aged 45+

With approval “Last month, I was unable to choose one single item from a variety of options. In the end, I decided not to buy anything at all " agreed:

• 49% of respondents aged 18-29
• 39% aged 30-44
• 27% aged 45+

This can be explained by the fact that with age, purchases occur more consciously and more rationally, so this kind of question arises much less often.

Real life examples confirming the growing popularity of the trend:

1. Consumers want to try everything

Consumers' desire to try a product before buying has an impact on the electronics market. An example is the short-term rental service for gadgets Lumoid.

• For just $ 60 a week, you can take a test to finally understand if you need this $ 550 gadget.
• For $ 5 a day, you can also rent a quadcopter to determine which model you need.

2. The burden of credit kills the joy of using the gadget

Expensive equipment, taken on a loan, more and more often ceases to please millennials, even before the loan is repaid.

In this case, the Flip startup comes to the rescue, created so that people can transfer the annoying purchase to other owners, along with obligations to further repay the loan. According to statistics, popular products find new owners within 30 days from the date of the announcement.

And the Roam service began working on the real estate market, which allows you to conclude just one long-term rental agreement, and then at least every week to choose a new place of residence for yourself on any of the three continents covered by the service. All residential properties Roam works with are equipped with high-speed Wi-Fi and state-of-the-art kitchen facilities.

Trend 4: the downside of technical progress

Does technology improve our daily lives, or only complicate it? Technology has truly made people's lives more convenient and efficient. However, consumers are beginning to feel that there is a negative side to technological progress.

• 77% of those surveyed around the world agree with the statement “ The technology craze has led to an increase in obesity among people»
• 67% of respondents aged 18-29 confirmed that they know a person who broke up with their other half via SMS
• The use of technology leads not only to sleep disturbance, noted by 78% of women and 69% of men, but also makes us stupider, according to 47% of respondents, and less polite (63%)

Real life examples confirming the growing popularity of the trend:

1. There is a dependence on technology

The recent successes of the company's projects have shown that people become addicted to watching new TV shows in the shortest possible time. According to a global survey, 2015 series such as House of Cards and Orange Is the New Black kept viewers eagerly awaiting each episode in the first three to five episodes. At the same time, new series, such as "Stranger Things" and "Annealing", managed to hook viewers after watching only the first two episodes.

Modern smartphones have become an important part of the life of children, who can no longer do without them for a day. American researchers have shown that the time spent on smartphones negatively affects the performance of schoolchildren. Children who daily “sit” on mobile devices for 2-4 hours after school are 23% more likely to fail to complete their homework than their peers who are not so dependent on gadgets.

3. Cars save pedestrians

According to the US National Highway Traffic Safety Administration, the country is hit by a pedestrian every eight minutes. Most often, such accidents occur due to the fact that pedestrians send messages on the go and do not follow the road.

To improve the safety level of all road users, it develops an innovative technology that can predict human behavior, thereby reducing the severity of the consequences of road accidents and even, in some cases, preventing them.

Twelve experimental Ford vehicles traveled more than 800 thousand kilometers on the roads of Europe, China and the United States, having accumulated an array of data, with a total volume of more than a year - 473 days.

Trend 5: Change of leaders, now it's not they who decide everything, but we

Who today has the most significant influence on our life, the ecological situation in the world, the social sphere and health care? For decades, cash flows have predominantly moved between individuals and organizations, be they government agencies or businesses.

Today we are more we begin to feel responsible for the correctness of decisions made by society as a whole.

To the question “ What is the main driving force that can change society for the better? " the respondents answered as follows:

• 47% - Consumers
• 28% - State
• 17% - Companies
• 8% - refrained from answering

Real life examples confirming the growing popularity of the trend:

1. Business must be honest with consumers

The American online store Everlane, specializing in the sale of clothing, builds its business on the principles of maximum transparency in relations with suppliers and customers. The creators of Everlane have abandoned the exorbitant markups that the fashion industry is famous for and openly show on their website what the final price of each item is based on - the website displays the cost of material, labor and transportation.

2. Prices must be affordable for consumers

The international humanitarian organization Médecins Sans Frontières is actively fighting the high cost of vaccines. She recently refused to accept a donation of one million doses of pneumonia vaccine, as the formulation was protected by a patent, which negatively affects the price of the final product and makes it inaccessible to residents in many parts of the world. With this move, the organization wants to emphasize the importance of addressing drug availability in the long term.

3. More and more services should appear for the convenience of users

To raise awareness of the service l and reduce the number of cars on the road, Uber launched drones with advertising posters into the sky of Mexico City. Signs on the posters urged drivers stuck in traffic to think about using their own car for commuting.

One of the posters read: “Are you driving alone in the car? That's why you can never admire the mountains around you. " Thus, the company wanted to draw the attention of drivers to the problem of dense smog over the city. The inscription on another poster: "The city was built for you, not for 5.5 million cars."

What does it mean?

These are already part of our life. They show what is going on in the minds of consumers: what they think about, how they make decisions about the purchase of a particular product. Businesses need to be careful about their customer behavior and be very responsive to change.

The modern world (by which I here mean, of course, only society, but not nature) is a product of a long previous development. Therefore, it cannot be understood without referring to the history of mankind. But turning to history can only help if you are guided by the correct general approach to it. I am an adherent of the unitary-stage view of world history, according to which it is a single process of progressive development, in the course of which stages of world significance replace each other. Of all the unitary-stage concepts that have existed and exist today, the theory of socio-economic formations, which is a necessary moment in the Marxist materialist understanding of history (historical materialism), is most consistent with historical reality. In it, the main types of society, which are at the same time the stages of its world development, are distinguished on the basis of the socio-economic structure, which gave reason to call them socio-economic formations.

K. Marx himself believed that in the history of mankind five socio-economic formations had already changed: primitive communist, "Asian", antique (slave-owning), feudal and capitalist. His followers often omitted the "Asian" formation. But regardless of whether four or five socio-economic formations figured in the picture of the change in the stages of world-historical development, it was most often believed that this scheme is a model of the development of each specific individual society. those. sociohistorical organism (sociora) taken separately. In such an interpretation, which can be called linear-stadial, the theory of socio-economic formations came into conflict with historical reality.

But it is also possible to look at the scheme of development and change of socio-economic formations as a reproduction of the internal need for the development of not every sociohistorical organism taken separately, but only all sociohistorical organisms that existed in the past and exist now together, i.e. only human society as a whole. In this case, humanity appears as a single whole, and socio-economic formations, first of all, as stages of development of this single whole, and not socio-historical organisms taken separately. This understanding of the development and change of socio-economic formations can be called globally stadial, globally formational.

The global stage-by-stage understanding of history necessarily presupposes the study of the interaction between individual concrete societies, i.e. sociohistorical organisms, and their various kinds of systems. Sociohistorical organisms that existed at the same time next to each other always influenced each other in one way or another. And quite often the impact of one sociohistorical organism on another led to significant changes in the structure of the latter. This kind of influence can be called social induction.

There was a time in human history when all sociohistorical organisms were of the same type. Then, the unevenness of historical development began to manifest itself more and more sharply. Some societies moved forward, while others continued to remain at their previous stages of development. As a result, different historical worlds... This became especially noticeable during the transition from a pre-class society to a civilized society. The first civilizations emerged as islands in the sea of ​​a primitive communal system. All this makes it necessary to clearly distinguish between advanced sociohistorical organisms and those lagging behind in their development. I will call the highest sociohistorical organisms for a given time superior(from Latin super - over, over), and the lower - inferior(from Latin infra - under). With the transition to civilization, superior organisms usually did not exist alone. At least a significant part of them, and subsequently all of them taken together, formed an integral system of sociohistorical organisms, which was center of world-historical development... This system was world, but not in the sense that it covered the whole world, but in the fact that its existence affected the entire course of world history. All other organisms formed historical periphery... This periphery was subdivided into dependent from the center and independent From him.

Of all the types of social induction, the most important for understanding the course of history is the effect of superior organisms on inferior organisms. This - sociological superinduction... It could lead to different results. One of them consisted in the fact that under the influence of sociohistorical organisms of the higher type, sociohistorical organisms of the lower type were transformed into organisms of the same type that influenced them, i.e. pulled themselves up to their level. This process can be called superiorization... But the influence of the superior sociohistorical organisms could also lead to the fact that inferior sociohistorical organisms took a step, on the one hand, forward, and on the other, sideways. Such a result of the influence of superior sociohistorical organisms on inferior organisms can be called later materialization (from Latin lateralis - lateral). As a result, peculiar socio-economic types of societies arose that were not stages of world-historical development. They can be called socio-economic paraformations.

The new era, which began on the verge of the 15th and 16th centuries, is characterized by the formation and development of the capitalist mode of production. Capitalism spontaneously, spontaneously, without external influence arose only in one place on the globe - in Western Europe. The emerging bourgeois sociohistorical organisms formed a new world system. The development of capitalism proceeded along two lines. One direction - development deep into: the maturation of capitalist relations, the industrial revolution, bourgeois revolutions that ensured the transfer of power into the hands of the bourgeoisie, etc. Another is the development of capitalism in breadth.

The Western European world system of capitalism is the first of four world systems (it was preceded by three: the Middle Eastern political, the Mediterranean antique and the Western European feudal-burgher), which swept the whole world with its influence. With its appearance, the process of internationalization began. All existing sociohistorical organisms began to form a certain unity - world historic space... The historical periphery turned out to be not only and not simply drawn into the sphere of influence of the new historical center - the world capitalist system. It fell into dependence on the center, became an object of exploitation by the world capitalist system. Some peripheral countries completely lost their independence and became colonies of the West, while others, while formally retaining their sovereignty, found themselves in various forms of economic, and thus political dependence on it.

As a result of the influence of the world capitalist center, capitalist socio-economic relations began to penetrate into the peripheral countries, and the whole world began to become capitalist. The conclusion involuntarily suggested itself that sooner or later all countries would become capitalist, and thus the distinction between the historical center and the historical periphery would disappear. All sociohistorical organisms will belong to the same type, they will be capitalist. This conclusion formed the basis for emerging in the XX century. numerous concepts of modernization (W. Rostow, S. Eisenstadt, S. Black, etc.). In an extremely clear form it was formulated in the works of F. Fukuyama. But life turned out to be more complicated, it broke all logically perfectly flawless schemes.

The historical center and the historical periphery have survived and continue to exist to this day, although they, of course, have undergone significant changes. The historical periphery indeed gradually began to become capitalist, but the point is that in all peripheral countries dependent on the West European world center, capitalism took a different form than in the countries of the center. This was not noticed for a long time. For a long time it was believed that all the features of capitalism in peripheral countries are associated either with the fact that they are deprived of political independence, are colonies, or with the fact that this capitalism is early, not yet sufficiently developed, immature.

Insight came only in the middle of the 20th century. And initially from economists and politicians in Latin America. By this time, the countries of Latin America had been politically independent for a century and a half, and capitalism in them could in no way be characterized as initial or early. The Argentine economist R. Prebis was the first to come to the conclusion that the international capitalist system is quite clearly divided into two parts: the center, which is formed by the Western countries, and the periphery, and that capitalism existing in the countries of the periphery, which he called peripheral capitalism, qualitatively different from the capitalism of the countries of the center. Subsequently, the provision on the existence of two types of capitalism was developed in the works of T. Dos-Santos, F. Cardoso, E. Faletto, S. Furtado, A. Aguilar, H. Alavi, G. Myrdal, P. Baran, S. Amin and other adherents of the concept of addiction (dependent development). They convincingly showed that peripheral capitalism is not the initial stage of capitalism characteristic of the countries of the center, but a dead-end version of capitalism, in principle incapable of progress and condemning the overwhelming majority of the population of peripheral countries to deep and hopeless poverty.

By now, it can be considered firmly established that there are two qualitatively distinct capitalist modes of production: the capitalism of the center, which I prefer to call orthocapitalism(from the Greek orthos - direct, genuine), and capitalism of the periphery - paracapitalism(from the Greek. steam - near, about). Accordingly, along with the ortho-capitalist socio-economic formation, there is a paracapitalist socio-economic paraformation in the world. Thus, the impact of the superior capitalist sociohistorical organisms on the overwhelming majority of inferior precapitalist sociohistorical organisms resulted not in the superiorization of the latter, but in their lateralization.

In the XIX-XX centuries. the world center has also undergone changes. It expanded both by budding (USA, Canada, Australia, New Zealand) and superiorization (Nordic countries and Japan). As a result, the world ortho-capitalist system began to be called not Western European, but simply Western.

By the beginning of the XX century. Basically, the division of the world historical space, which coincided with the international capitalist system, into two historical worlds took shape: the western world ortho-capitalist system and the periphery countries, in which paracapitalism either arose or already arose. Along with many other countries of the world by the beginning of the XX century. tsarist Russia entered the dependent periphery. Paracapitalism arose in her.

Since by the beginning of the XX century. capitalism in Western Europe has finally established itself, then the era of bourgeois revolutions for most of its countries is a thing of the past. But the era of revolutions has come for the rest of the world, in particular for Russia. These revolutions are usually understood as bourgeois. But this is not true. They were qualitatively different from the revolutions in the West. These revolutions were not directed against feudalism, for in no peripheral country, including Russia, such a social system has never existed. Nor were they directed against pre-capitalist relations taken by themselves. These relations in peripheral countries did not oppose capitalist ones, but were in symbiosis with them. And the main obstacle to the development of these countries was not pre-capitalist relations, but peripheral capitalism, which included pre-capitalist relations as a necessary factor. Therefore, the objective task of these revolutions was to abolish peripheral capitalism, and thus to abolish dependence on the center. While antiparacapitalist, these revolutions were inevitably antiorthocapitalist and were directed against capitalism in general.

Their first wave occurred in the first two decades of the 20th century: the revolutions of 1905–1907. in Russia, 1905-1911 in Iran, 1908-1909 in Turkey, 1911-1912 in China, 1911-1917 in Mexico, 1917 again in Russia. The October Workers 'and Peasants' Revolution of 1917 in Russia was the only one of all that won. But this victory was not at all in achieving the goal set by the leaders and participants of the revolution - the creation of a classless socialist, and then a communist society. At the then level of development of the productive forces, Russia could not go over to socialism. This level inevitably assumed the existence of private property. And in Russia, after the October Revolution, which destroyed both pre-capitalist and capitalist forms of exploitation, the process of the formation of private property, the exploitation of man by man and social classes inevitably began. But the path to capitalist class formation was closed. Therefore, this process has acquired a different character in the country.

When they talk about private property, they usually mean the property of an individual who can use and dispose of it undividedly. This is a legal, legal approach. But property in a class society is always not only a legal phenomenon, but also an economic one. Private property as an economic relation is the property of one part of society, which allows it to exploit another (and a large) part of it. People who make up the exploiting class can own the means of production in different ways. If they each own them individually, then this personal private property, if in groups, then it is group private property.

And, finally, only the exploiting class as a whole can be the owner, but not one of its members taken separately. This - class-wide private property, which always takes the form of state property. This determines the coincidence of the ruling exploiting class with the nucleus of the state apparatus. Before us is the very mode of production that Marx once called Asiatic. I prefer to call it political(from the Greek polity - state) production method... There is not one but several political modes of production. One of them - ancient political- was the basis of society in the ancient, and then in the medieval East, in pre-Columbian America. Other political modes of production sprang up sporadically in different countries in different historical eras. In post-October Russia, in the Soviet Union, a method of production was established, which can be called neo-political.

If we consider the October Revolution of 1917 as socialist, then inevitably we have to admit that it was defeated. Instead of socialism, a new antagonistic class society emerged in the USSR - a neo-political one. But the essence of the matter is that this revolution, according to its objective task, was not socialist at all, but antiparacapitalist. And in this capacity, she undoubtedly won. The dependence of Russia on the West was abolished, peripheral capitalism, and thereby capitalism in general, was abolished in the country.

At first, the new production - neo-political - relations ensured the rapid development of productive forces in Russia, which had thrown off the shackles of dependence on the West. The latter, from a backward agrarian state, turned into one of the most powerful industrial countries in the world, which subsequently provided the USSR with the position of one of the two superpowers. As a result of the second wave of anti-capitalist revolutions that took place in the countries of the capitalist periphery in the 40s of the XX century, neo-politicalism spread far beyond the USSR. The periphery of the international capitalist system has sharply narrowed. A huge, whole system of neo-political socio-historical organisms has taken shape, which has acquired the status of a world one.

As a result, for the first time in the history of mankind, two world systems began to exist on the globe: neo-political and ortho-capitalist. The second was the center for the peripheral paracapitalist countries, which together with it formed the international capitalist system. This structure was expressed in what became customary in the 40-50s of the XX century. the division of human society as a whole into three historical worlds: the first (ortho-capitalist), the second ("socialist", neo-political) and the third (peripheral, paracapitalist).

The ability of neo-political relations of production to stimulate the development of productive forces was rather limited. They could not ensure the intensification of production, the introduction of the results of a new, third in a row (after the agrarian and industrial revolutions), a revolution in the productive forces of mankind - the scientific and technological revolution (STC). The rate of production growth began to fall. Neo-political relations turned into a brake on the path of the development of productive forces. The need arose for the revolutionary transformation of society. But instead of a revolution, a counter-revolution took place.

The USSR collapsed. In its largest stump, called the Russian Federation, and other states that arose on the ruins of this country, capitalism began to form. The development of most other non-political countries followed the same path. The global neo-political system has disappeared. Most of its former members began to integrate into the international capitalist system, and in all cases into its peripheral part. Almost all of them, including Russia, again found themselves in economic and political dependence on the ortho-capitalist center. In all these countries, not just capitalism began to take shape, but peripheral capitalism. For Russia, this was nothing more than the restoration of the situation that existed before the October Revolution of 1917. The restoration took place on the scale of the world as a whole. Once again, only one world system began to exist on earth - the ortho-capitalist one. It is a historical center, all countries that are not part of it form a historical periphery.

However, there was no complete return to the past. All countries outside the western center are peripheral, but not all of them are dependent on the West. In addition to the dependent periphery, there is also an independent periphery. From the countries of the former neo-political world system, it includes China, Vietnam, Cuba, North Korea, until recently - Yugoslavia, from among others Burma, Iran, Libya, until April 2002 - Iraq. Of the countries that emerged on the ruins of the USSR, Belarus belongs to the independent periphery. Thus, the world is now divided into four parts: 1) the western ortho-capitalist center; 2) old dependent periphery; 3) new dependent periphery; 4) independent periphery.

But the main thing that distinguishes the modern world is the process of globalization taking place in it. If internationalization is the process of creating a world system of sociohistorical organisms, then globalization is the process of the emergence of one single sociohistorical organism on the scale of all mankind. This emerging world sociohistorical organism has a peculiar structure - it itself consists of sociohistorical organisms. An analogy is superorganisms in the biological world, such as anthills, termite mounds, swarms of bees. They all consist of common biological organisms - ants, termites, bees. Therefore, most accurately, it would be to talk about the process of formation in the modern world of a global sociohistorical superorganism.

And this one global superorganism in conditions when an ortho-capitalist center exists on earth, exploiting most of the periphery, and the periphery exploited by this center, inevitably arises as class sociohistorical organism. It is split in two global class... One global class is the countries of the West. Together they act as the exploiting class. Another global class is formed by the countries of the new and old dependent periphery. And since the global sociohistorical organism is split into classes, of which one exploits the other, then in it must inevitably take place global class struggle.

The formation of a global class society inevitably presupposes the formation of a global state apparatus, which is an instrument in the hands of the ruling class. The formation of a global state cannot be anything other than the establishment of complete domination by the Western center over the entire world, and thereby depriving all peripheral sociohistorical organisms of real not only economic, but also political independence.

The new state of the western center contributes to the fulfillment of this task. In the past, it was split into warring parts. So it was before the First World War, when the countries of the Entente and the countries of Concord confronted each other. This was the case before the Second World War. The center is now largely unified. It is united under the leadership of the United States. The old imperialism was replaced by the alliance of all imperialists predicted by J. Hobson back in 1902, jointly exploiting the rest of the world [ 1 ]. K. Kautsky once called this phenomenon ultra-imperialism.

The famous G7 has already emerged as a world government, the International Monetary Fund and the World Bank as instruments for the economic enslavement of the periphery. No class society can do without special detachments of armed people, with the help of which the ruling class keeps the oppressed in subjection. NATO has now become such an apparatus of world violence.

Quite recently, the ortho-capitalist center was limited in the possibilities of aggressive actions by the existence of the world neo-political system and the USSR. Ultra-imperialism wore a strong muzzle. As a result, he was forced to come to terms with the collapse of the world colonial system. In an effort to get rid of this muzzle, the center and, above all, the United States initiated an arms race. But for a long time it was all in vain. There is no Soviet Union now. The muzzle is ripped off. And the ortho-capitalist center went on the offensive.

The process of establishing what the Nazis called the "Neue Ordnung" and their current successors the "New World Order" is under way. The main danger for the ultra-imperialist center is posed by countries that are politically and economically independent of it. Of course, China is the most dangerous of them for the ortho-capitalist center, but it is still too tough for it. The first blow was struck against Iraq in 1991. Iraq was defeated, but the goal was not realized, the country retained its independence. The second blow was struck in 1999 against Yugoslavia. As a result, though not immediately, a pro-Western "fifth column" came to power in the country. Yugoslavia became part of the dependent periphery.

Modern development trends can be characterized in two words - globalization and acceleration. Technology, production and our whole life are accelerating every day. Every year the economies of different states are more and more intertwined with each other, the Internet unites millions of people around the world, transport allows you not to think about distances, events in one region of the world, one way or another, affect all countries.

Modern development trends are based on the interaction of individuals, organizations and entire states. Today, only a few countries manage to maintain isolation from the outside world, but they will never be able to achieve complete isolation. For example, even in North Korea you can get on a tourist excursion, which already speaks of the partial openness of this country. Globalization has so strongly linked the various regions of the planet that events in one of them will certainly be reflected in the other. Humanity has realized that it is necessary to combine their knowledge, skills and technologies to achieve even greater success, and therefore we can observe countless international agreements, treaties, organizations and associations.
In every area of ​​people's lives, the directions of change are different, but at the same time they have a lot in common. As already mentioned, everything in our life is accelerating and becoming more interconnected.
Modern trends in technology development are changing our daily life so radically that it is already difficult to imagine existence without many technological devices. Hardly anyone can do without a mobile phone, computer, digital camera. Advances in communication technology have brought about tangible changes in the way we do business. The so-called electronic business or business on the Internet is getting more and more development. This became possible due to the widespread use of the Internet, now we can connect to the global network not only from our home computer, but also from a laptop, mobile phone and other portable computer devices. Modern trends in the development of wireless communications suggest that soon we will be able to connect to the network anywhere in the world, which is undoubtedly very convenient. Along with the expansion of the connection area, the quality of the connection itself improves and the number of services provided increases. In addition, modern economic development trends focus on the provision of services, rather than on the production process itself, which is why Internet commerce has become so widespread.

In our world, modern development trends can also be characterized as a series of changes that radically change our reality. If earlier we had to go to the post office or to the bank to pay any bills, now we can do all this without leaving our room - the Internet saves us from unnecessary running around and queues. The improvement of the service sector affects the current trends in the development of the entire world economy. Now the main focus is on product promotion and improvement, with great emphasis on improving technology, both production and sales. Automation of production made it possible to reduce labor costs for the production of products itself; now, employees are required not only to manufacture, but to improve and promote goods on the market. Now it becomes important not what to sell, but how to do it.
Modern trends in the development of the world economy cannot be imagined without the process of globalization. One of the most influential organizations that sets the principles and rules of world trade is the WTO - the World Trade Organization. The largest countries in the world are part of this association, but developing countries are rapidly gaining momentum, and many of them are almost ready to join this global community. According to the WTO, in recent years, the share of the market occupied by communications services and information technology has increased in the world, while the share of trade in agricultural products and raw materials has decreased.
The development of technology and the health care system has not spared. Modern trends in the development of medicine and health protection are also based on the achievements of communication systems. In addition to a breakthrough in the pharmacological field, it is worth mentioning the diagnostic component of healthcare. Now it has become possible to diagnose patients at a distance, which increases the accuracy of the diagnosis, since the attending physician can immediately consult with a more experienced specialist in a particular field. With the help of the latest technologies, an international project GLOB was launched, which involves studying the mechanisms of the relationship between the quality of primary health care provided to the population and the level of training of personnel providing this health care. Speaking about the use of the latest technologies in the treatment of various ailments, it should be noted that modern development trends in this area boil down to the fact that the current possibilities of medicine allow minimizing surgical operations that require deep incisions or openings. Laser treatment technologies make it possible to dispense with postoperative scars and scars, because deep incisions are not made.

Speaking about medicine, one should also mention the current trends in the development of cosmetology. Among the most developing hardware techniques are laser, RF, photo techniques. At the same time, technologies that have been used for a long time are being improved: electromyostimulation, ultrasound, microcurrent therapy, etc. For example, RF technologies help to eliminate excess fat deposits on the face, give an excellent result of skin tightening and eliminate the external manifestations of cellulite. Many cosmetic procedures are performed using ultrasound, for example, in the correction of localized fat deposits.
Modern trends in the development of education indicate that soon a machine can largely replace a person. For example, it is worth remembering the distance education system, which made it possible to gain new knowledge without leaving your home. Modern trends in the development of education are based on self-study, because the assimilation of the material depends exclusively on the student. Now there is no longer a need to force to learn something, if a person really needs education, knowledge and a diploma, then he will make enough efforts. Of course, such education is not available to everyone. The point is not in the material or technological support of this type of educational process, but in the ability to work independently. Modern trends in the development of education focus not so much on learning to do something as on learning to independently find and apply the necessary information. The current level of development of information and communication technologies allows everyone to find a lot of information on a particular subject, and now it is important not just to find information, but to choose the one you need and use it correctly. Many teachers and educators find that traditional education systems in schools and universities are becoming less and less suitable for the required level of training. Every year, the curriculum is adjusted, but in the end it still turns out that something is wrong. Modern trends in the development of society force us to look for radically new teaching methods, to use not just textbooks, but textbooks in combination with specific real life examples and tasks. In many countries, a technique is already being practiced in which the student himself chooses the necessary subjects for study, and the teacher can only suggest the necessary set of disciplines. This can be considered reasonable, because, you see, it is not always important for a builder to know the ancient or modern concepts of the origin of the universe. It is much more important for this specialist to know the properties of building materials, mathematics, physics and other natural sciences. It is necessary to transform the training system so that, having come to work, a person can almost immediately start performing his duties, and now we can often see the picture:

Forget everything you learned in school / university and learn again.

It is obvious that a young specialist can hear such a phrase in our time quite often, which is why it is necessary to restructure the entire education system.
The above modern trends in the development of technology, economics, education, medicine are not a complete list of changes and innovations that we can meet in our life. However, no matter what area we take for consideration, advances in technology will still be key, because they most strongly change the usual foundations and algorithms of actions. At the turn of the 20th and 21st centuries, we are faced with the so-called era of global changes, which were caused by a breakthrough in microelectronics. The latest developments have made many dreams and the most daring assumptions a reality: wireless Internet, mobile communications, etc. The older generation had a chance to retrain and adapt to the radically changed working and living conditions in general. The youth, on the other hand, is rapidly leaping forward, quickly assimilating huge flows of information. Modern trends in the development of society indicate that in today's world a successful person is a person who can quickly find the necessary information and effectively apply it. Thus, we have come close to such a concept as an information society, in which the main value is not traditional labor, land, capital, but information. The phrase “Who owns the information owns everything” sounds more convincing than ever.
Elizabeth Lz

1. Stages of modern scientific and technological revolution

The term "Scientific and technological revolution" originated in the middle of the twentieth century, when man created an atomic bomb, and it became clear that science could destroy our planet.

The scientific and technological revolution is characterized by two criteria:

1. There was a fusion of science with technology into a single system (this determines the combination of scientific and technical), as a result of which science has become a direct productive force.

2. Unprecedented successes in the conquest of nature and man himself as a part of nature.

The achievements of the scientific and technological revolution are impressive. It took man into space, gave him a new source of energy - atomic, fundamentally new substances and technical means (laser), new means of mass communication and information, etc., etc.

Fundamental research is at the forefront of science. The attention of the authorities to them sharply increased after Albert Einstein informed US President Roosevelt in 1939 that physicists had identified a new source of energy that would allow them to create unprecedented weapons of mass destruction.

Modern science is "expensive pleasure." The construction of a synchrophasotron, necessary for research in the field of elementary particle physics, requires billions of dollars. And space exploration? In developed countries, science today spends 2-3% of the gross national product. But without this, neither a sufficient defense capability of the country, nor its production power is possible.

Science is developing exponentially: the volume of scientific activity, including world scientific information in the twentieth century, doubles every 10-15 years. Calculation of the number of scientists, sciences. In 1900 there were 100,000 scientists in the world, now there are 5,000,000 (one in a thousand people living on Earth). 90% of all scientists who have ever lived on the planet are our contemporaries. The process of differentiation of scientific knowledge has led to the fact that there are now more than 15,000 scientific disciplines.

Science not only studies the world and its evolution, but is itself a product of evolution, making up, after nature and man, a special, "third" (according to Popper) world - the world of knowledge and skills. In the concept of three worlds - the world of physical objects, the world of the individual psychic and the world of intersubjective (universal) knowledge - science replaced Plato's “world of ideas”. The third, scientific world, has become the same equivalent to the philosophical "world of ideas" as the "city of God" of Blessed Augustine in the Middle Ages.

In modern philosophy, there are two views on science in its connection with human life: science is a product created by man (K. Jaspers) and science as a product of being, discovered through a person (M. Heidegger). The latter look brings us even closer to the Platonic-Augustinian ideas, but the former does not deny the fundamental importance of science.

Science, according to Popper, not only directly benefits social production and the well-being of people, but also teaches thinking, develops the mind, and saves mental energy.

“From the moment science became reality, the truth of human statements is due to their scientific nature. Therefore, science is an element of human dignity, hence its charm, through which it penetrates into the secrets of the universe "(Jaspers K." The meaning and purpose of history ")

The same enchantment led to an exaggerated idea of ​​the possibilities of science, to attempts to put it above and before other branches of culture. A kind of scientific "lobby" was created, which was named scientism (from the Latin "science" - science). It is in our time, when the role of science is truly enormous, that scientism appeared with the idea of ​​science, especially natural science, as the highest, if not absolute value. This scientific ideology declared that only science can solve all the problems facing humanity, including immortality.

Scientism is characterized by the absolutization of the style and methods of the "exact" sciences, declaring them the pinnacle of knowledge, often accompanied by the denial of social and humanitarian issues as having no cognitive value. In the wake of scientism, the idea arose of "two cultures" not related to each other in any way - natural science and humanitarian (the book of the English writer Charles Snow "Two Cultures).

Within the framework of scientism, science was viewed as the only future sphere of spiritual culture that would absorb its irrational areas. In contrast to this, anti-scientist statements, which also loudly declared themselves in the second half of the twentieth century, doom it either to extinction or to eternal opposition to human nature.

Antiscientism proceeds from the proposition that science is fundamentally limited in solving fundamental human problems, and in its manifestations evaluates science as a force hostile to man, denying it a positive influence on culture. Yes, critics say, science increases the well-being of the population, but it also increases the danger of the death of mankind and the Earth from atomic weapons and environmental pollution.

The scientific and technological revolution is a radical revolution taking place during the twentieth century in the scientific ideas of mankind, accompanied by major shifts in technology, the acceleration of scientific and technological progress and the development of productive forces.

The beginning of the scientific and technological revolution was prepared by the outstanding successes of natural science in the late 19th - early 20th centuries. These include the discovery of the complex structure of the atom as a system of particles, rather than an indivisible whole; the discovery of radioactivity and the transformation of elements; creation of the theory of relativity and quantum mechanics; understanding the essence of chemical bonds, the discovery of isotopes, and then the production of new radioactive elements that are absent in nature.

The rapid development of the natural sciences continued in the middle of our century. New achievements have appeared in the physics of elementary particles, in the study of the microworld; cybernetics was created, genetics, chromosomal theory were developed.

The revolution in science was associated with a revolution in technology. Major technical achievements of the late XIX - early XX century. - the creation of electric cars, automobiles, airplanes, the invention of the radio, the gramophone. In the middle of the twentieth century, electronic computers appeared, the use of which became the basis for the development of complex automation of production and its management; the use and development of nuclear fission processes laid the foundation for atomic technology; rocketry is developing, space exploration begins; television is born and widely used; synthetic materials with predetermined properties are created; successfully carried out in medicine, transplantation of organs of animals and humans, and other complex operations.

The scientific and technological revolution is associated with a significant increase in industrial production and the improvement of its management system. In industry, more and more new technical achievements are being applied, interaction between industry and science is increasing, the process of intensifying production is developing, the time for developing and implementing new technical proposals is shortening. The need for highly qualified personnel in all branches of science, technology and production is growing. The scientific and technological revolution has a great impact on all aspects of society.

2. Transition to post-industrial civilization and internalization of the economy.

The term "postindustrial society" was born in the United States back in the 1950s, when it became clear that mid-century American capitalism was in many ways different from industrial capitalism that existed before the great crisis of 1929-1933. It is noteworthy that initially post-industrial society was considered in the rationalistic concepts of linear progress, economic growth, increased welfare and technicalization of labor, as a result of which working time is reduced and, accordingly, free time increases. At the same time, already in the late 1950s, Erisman questioned the advisability of unlimited growth in prosperity, noting that among young Americans from the "upper middle class" the prestige of owning certain things is gradually decreasing.

Since the late 1960s, the term "post-industrial society" has been filled with new content. Scientists distinguish such features as the massive dissemination of creative, intellectual labor, a qualitatively increased volume of scientific knowledge and information used in production, the predominance in the structure of the economy of the service sector, science, education, culture over industry and agriculture in terms of the share in GNP and the number of employed , changing the social structure.

In a traditional agrarian society, the main task was to provide the population with basic means of subsistence. Therefore, efforts were concentrated in agriculture and food production. In the industrial society that has replaced this problem has faded into the background. In developed countries, 5-6% of the population employed in agriculture provided food for the entire society.

Industry came to the fore. The bulk of the people were employed in it. Society developed along the path of the accumulation of material wealth.

The next stage is associated with the transition from an industrial to a service society. Theoretical knowledge is critical for technological innovation. The volumes of this knowledge are becoming so large that they provide a quantum leap. Extremely developed means of communication ensure the free flow of knowledge, which makes it possible to talk about a qualitatively new type of society.

In the 19th and up to the middle of the 20th century, communication existed in two different forms. The first is mail, newspapers, magazines and books, i.e. media that were printed on paper and distributed by physical transport or stored in libraries. The second is the telegraph, telephone, radio and television; here encoded messages or speech were transmitted by radio signals or by cable from person to person. Technologies that once existed in different fields of application are now blurring these differences, so that consumers of information have many alternative means at their disposal, which also poses a number of difficult problems from the point of view of legislators.