Theme 2: Top-Down Modernization Often Provokes Backlash

Atatürk succeeded in imposing top-down modernization on Turkey. The Shah of Iran failed. Mao's Cultural Revolution provoked enormous suffering and was reversed under Deng. The lesson is not that modernization always fails when imposed from above, but that it requires either remarkably effective state capacity, broad popular support, or both. Modernization imposed against the wishes of religious authorities, traditional elites, or substantial populations can produce powerful resistance.