«Modernization of industrial society»: marginalization of population and democracy

«Reflexive modernization» (the concept belongs to Ulrich Beck, a German sociologist) is a modernization of alreadyindustrialized and urbanized society. If classical modernization means the transition of traditional society to the industrial one and «everyperson's freedom of actions degrees extension» is considered its «generalizing» criterion, then «reflexive» modernization extends the level of«individualization» in a society to unprecedented scopes affecting two main «stable supports» of a person - «family and profession».As for the political sphere, according to U. Beck's opinion, political regime should retain its democracy. Serious changes will touch onpolitical parties only - their influence will continue to weaken and other new non-governmental organizations will come to the forefront. Thesteady growth trend of the «part of swing voters» in well developed Western countries leads to this conclusion, as considered by the Germansociologist. But the main condition of democracy survival - aspirations of citizens for taking part in policy decisions - remains, as U. Beckinsists.This optimistic point of view is more and more coming under criticism from different perspectives. In this article the problems ofdemocracy connected with the processes of population marginalization which are observed in different world regions (the point that«democracy can not exist without demos» is taken as a basis) are emphasized.

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