Answer to Question 1
False
Answer to Question 2
For economic development to drive secularization, it must be relatively
equitable: far greater support for secularrational forms of authority has emerged in
wealthy countries with relatively low levels of economic inequality, such as Japan or
Sweden, than in wealthy countries with relatively higher levels of economic inequality,
such as the United States. A low level of economic inequality in a rich country means that
the country has few truly poor people. In contrast, high inequality means that although
the country has plenty of wealthy people and even a large middle class, a sizable group of
truly impoverished people remains.
Secularization follows economic modernization only if by modernization we mean
growth with equity. To have a secularizing effect, economic development must reach as
many in society as possible, and leave few behind. Modernization theory suggests that
democracy is more likely to emerge over the long run in countries where cultural values
favor secularrational forms of political authority and personal well-being. We most likely
see this tendency because people in wealthier countries worry less about day-to-day
survival and have more resources and time to devote to politics. As people gradually grow
less concerned about survival, they grow more concerned about individual well-being in a
broader sense and, thus many come to hold political values that motivate participation in
emancipative social movements that seek to attain, sustain, or extend democratic
freedoms. In contrast, people in poorer countries remain worried about earning enough
to suffice their basic needs. To them, democratic freedoms may be a luxury. Moreover,
they tend to place relatively less value on concepts associated with democracy, such as
political liberty and individual equality, while remaining attached to hierarchical forms of
political authority.
Hence, secularization exists widespread among wealthy democracies, but is nonexistent
among less-wealthy developing economies.
Economic development tends to change cultural values to be more supportive of
democracy only if modernization is accompanied by growth with equity. But,
secularization may not occur, and thus, cultural values in many religious and nondemocratic
societies may not gradually evolve because few developing societies have
experienced growth with equity in recent decades.
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