But we don't have an example of a democratic society existing in a socialist economy - which is the only real alternative to capitalism in the modern world.

East Asia confirms the superior capacity of industrial capitalism in raising the material standard of living of large masses of people.

Even in a society as tightly controlled as Singapore's, the market creates certain forces which perhaps in the long run may lead to democracy

If you say simply that pressures toward democracy are created by the market, I would say yes

I think what I and most other sociologists of religion wrote in the 1960s about secularization was a mistake. Our underlying argument was that secularization and modernity go hand in hand. With more modernization comes more secularization

In all advanced industrial societies, education has become the single most important vehicle of upward mobility.

Capitalism has been one of the most dynamic forces in human history, transforming one society after another, and today it has become established as an international system determining the economic fate of most of mankind.