ABSTRACT
The twentieth century was full of economic, social, and political revolutions. In the 1950s and 1960s, the industrial society concept spread increasingly and, for obvious reasons, most Western researchers were under the sway of the ideas of technological determinism. In economic terms, modernization was seen as hinging on accelerated industrial development involving the use of new technologies and efficient energy sources, greater division of labor and the advancement of commodity and monetary markets. The practical economic record of the 1970s-1990s showed clearly that the forecasts of the ideologues of "catching up" development came true only partially and that the advocates of Westernization proved much more accurate in their assumptions and calculations than the "dependientistas". Modernization concepts clearly pointed the way for the countries that opted for "catching up" development, yet successful change called for a number of conditions most of which proved unfeasible.
