The Factorial Structure of Modernity: Empirical Replications and a Critique

This paper employs data from a lower-class Guatemala sample in a new test of modernity as an empirically identifiable syndrome. Factor analysis shows definite dimensionality of modernity as well as a meaningful set of subdimensions. Hypotheses linking education, urban residence, and other socialization indicators with emergence of modernity are supported. Previous writings have defined modernity as positively linked with economic development. Assumptions underlying this hypothesis are examined. Modernity as a consequence of Western structural transformations may have little to di with, or be in fact detrimental to, causes of development in Third World ations. Interrelationships between empirical findings and critical analysis of these assumptions are discussed.