Salient Features of Traditional Transitional and Modern Societies

Major Features of Transitional Societies

Today, the geopolitical sphere is changing faster than ever before in history, and many modern societies are experiencing rapid, fundamental changes in their social direction and political ideologies that will have implications well into the 21st century. Although the United States stands out as a classic example of this process, it is reasonable to suggest that all societies experience these trends to some extent throughout their existence. In order to gain some new insights into these trends, the purpose of this paper is to review the relevant literature to identify the major features that are associated with the transitional societies. In addition, a comparison between the traditional, transitional, and modern societies based on each of the selected features is followed by a summary of the research and important findings concerning transitional societies in the conclusion.

Major features of transitional societies

As the term connotes, the term “transitional” is used to refer to societies that are experiencing some type of changes in its political, economic, social or cultural dimensions (Naudé, 2017). As noted above, virtually all societies are always changing in some way – for better or worse – indicating that the term is universally applicable at varying levels. For instance, according to Naudé (2017). “To various degrees, all societies face some form of transition, either abrupt or gradual. Consequently, all countries are best described as societies in transition. This is particularly true of developing or emerging countries across the globe” (p. 101). While the potential exists for modern societies to transition themselves downward, the term typically indicates that a society is transitioning for the betterment of its citizenry. In this regard, Naudé (2017) reports that, “In transitional societies, changes are significant and fundamental, and permeate almost every aspect of life; including the social, cultural, political, and economic dimensions. Thus, transitional societies create opportunities for re-imagining the intrapersonal and interpersonal dimensions of life” (p. 101). In sum, some of the salient features of transitional societies include the fact that the changes that are involved are 1) significant, 2) fundamental and 3) positively affect the quality of life of their citizens and these features are applied to traditional, transitional and modern societies below.

Application of selected features to traditional, transitional, and modern societies

In this context, the term “traditional” is used to societies which are “small-scale, are derived from indigenous and often ancient cultural practices” while the term “modern” is used to refer to societies that are characterized by “the industrial mode of production or the development of large-scale often colonial societies” (Traditional and Modern Societies: A Comparative Look, 2014, para. 4). Therefore, transitional societies exist along a continuum ranging from basic traditional to exceptionally modern. Any changes to traditional societies that fuel their transition into a modern society, though, must therefore consist of significant and fundamental changes which facilitate their positive development in terms of the quality of life of the people who live there.

Despite the positive nature of such changes reflected in the foregoing definitions, modern societies, however, can also suffer from changes that diminish citizens’ quality of life in significant and fundamental ways (Tures, 2022). Here again, the modern U.S. society comes readily to mind as efforts to limit or completely eliminate fundamental constitutional rights for some citizens gain momentum, making these changes significant for a wide array of reasons. Conversely, modern societies can also continue to evolve to enshrine opportunities for improving citizens’ quality of life, but the historical record indicates that this process frequently involves taking one step forward and two steps back before substantive changes are effected.