DIMENSIONS OF CHANGE DURING DEVELOPMENT FROM A PREINDUSTRIAL TO A MODERN SOCIETY

Less developed areas of the world, such as former socialist countries of Central and Eastern Europe, need to catch-up with the more advanced countries, such as the West. It mighl be helpful to understand more holistically what has been going on in the development of the more advanced ones from their stage of a preindustrial society to a modern one. This is an attempt to compile changing stages in terms of a set of different dimensions in order to help envision the current actual situation of the latecomers and their potential future. It is supposed to provoke rather than prescribe.