The Social Origins of Dictatorship and Democracy

The author of The Social Origins of Dictatorship and Democracy, Barrington Moore, is a renowned contemporary American sociologist and historian. This book is a wide-ranging work of historical scholarship. It mounts a major challenge to orthodox Western theories of modernization, criticizing the traditional Western view that capitalism and Western democracy are the only paths into modern industrial society and its ultimate destination. Drawing on a wealth of historical evidence, Moore argues that Western democracy was merely the fruit of a particular historical environment, and that the paths leading to modern society, along with the political systems suited to them, can take many different forms. When the book was published in 1966, it provoked widespread discussion among European and American intellectuals and marked a major shift in American social thought. It quickly became a Western academic classic, hailed as “a major exploration of human society and history.” The author was awarded the Woodrow Wilson Award and the MacIver Award.