Human development as a general theory of social change: A multi-level and cross-cultural perspective

This paper demonstrates that socioeconomic development, cultural modernization, and democratic regime performance constitute a coherent syndrome of social change'a syndrome whose common focus has not properly been specified by standard modernization theory. We specify this syndrome as Human Development, arguing that its three components have a common focus on individual choice. Socioeconomic development broadens individual choice by giving people more resources; cultural modernization gives rise to aspirations that lead people to seek for individual choice; and democracy extends individual choice by codifying legal opportunities. Analysis of data from 80 societies demonstrates: (1) that a universal resource-aspiration-opportunity syndrome is present at the individual, national and supra-national levels across 80 nations and 8 cultural zones; (2) that this Human Development syndrome is endogenously shaped by a causal effect from resources and aspirations on opportunities; and (3) that elite integrity or good governance is a strong exogenous determinant of the Human Development syndrome as a whole.