Sociology and politics of development

In answering the crucial question, how social change should be guided in the developing countries, Professor Varma begins by posing the problems of the scope of modernization and the general criteria used in evaluating moderniza tion processes. He examines carefully some of the models that have been used for this purpose in the past. He goes on to provide extensive summaries of the views on modernization of theorists in various social science disciplines, including sociology, politics, economics and anthropology, and stresses the importance of these views in guiding policy decisions. He focuses especially on the relevancy of these theories as they relate to decisions affecting the economy, the polity, the educational system, and the bureaucracy in a developing society. Professor Varma concludes his study with a comparison of the development processes of the United States, the Soviet Union, the People's Republic of China, Japan and India.