Question

What is Mass Society? I know its something like prosperity and bureaucracy have weakened traditional social ties but its a bit vague. Can anyone pls further explain it? And how can it be applied on modern China?

Answer 1

@e.mccormick pls help

Answer 2

Mass Society can also be seen as a criticism made by elitists. The social ties that are weakened are the ones that kept a small, elite group in power. The decline of royalty in Europe is one example, and is the example that caused the term to be created. After the French Revolution there was a divestiture of power from a small group to the masses in France. This is where the term originated.

So look at China's history. Did they every have a time where the elite few were replaced by the masses?

Answer 3

so the characteristic is that more people are gaining power instead of a small group of people?
China doesn't have aristocrat already when she formed so in a political sense of power, the communist party held the power till today, in what way that China demonstrates the characteristic of mass society?

Answer 4

Ah, but what was China before Communisim?

Answer 5

Qing Dynasty and then war with 8 countries then war with nationalist party

Answer 6

Do you see any similarity between that change and say the French Revolution or the other origins of the Mass Society idea?

Answer 7

if you say mass society means prosperity and bureaucracy weakened traditional ties, then probably
people in China nowadays starting to get rich and they seek for things with higher standards e.g. food quality
traditional values and religions become less important

Answer 8

The traditional social ties are that only a few rule, where as in a mass society this has shifted to the masses.

In truth, China has gone through two mass society shifts. The first from Imperial China to Communist China. But under Communist China a new form of special society came out of the upper levels of their Communist party. There has been a second shift when the revolutionary leaders passed away and things became even more diluted into the public, with less power being held by these small groups. In both cases there is more power to the people.

What references have they given you to look at for China's history.

Answer 9

right! the death of leaders like Mao
but they only showed us a video talking about food culture like in the old days, most of the people starved and now people can afford better food and some of them required higher standards of food quality
so its not quite "political" thats why i don't know how to apply "mass society" on it

Answer 10

It is about power shifts. Power moved from a small, elite group (traditional) to the masses (general public.)

Answer 11

okay i will try to figure that out, thanks