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Anomie and Development—A Cross-National Study

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2016, Master of Arts, University of Toledo, Sociology.
This is a quantitative cross-national study examining the relationship between development and anomie in 100 countries using the data extracted from the World Bank and United Nations Development Program. The main goal of the study is to inspect Durkheim’s theory of anomie, as he views anomie as a threat to the stability and integration of society. So the study distinguishes such a formulation of anomie with that of Merton and his followers who reformulated it as a concept merely to explain the issue of crime. Independent variables of study include the Human Development Index (measured based on health, education, and income), Political Development Index (measured based on efficiency of government, rule of law, and accountability of government), social inequality, migration, access to the Internet, international economic integration, urbanization, gender development, and size of population, and their effects on anomie are examined by a OLS curvilinear regression technique. Regarding the fact that all countries have achieved at least a minimum level of development, it is not possible to examine what happens exactly at the very beginning of the process of development, and consequently, the focus in on a range of countries from low-developed to very high-developed. According to the results, development has a strong negative effect on the level of anomie. Also, urbanization, growth of population, and geographic mobility have positive effects on anomie that is consistent with Durkheim’s argument. However, no significant relationship was found between anomie and social inequality, which is not consistent with Merton’s theory of anomie. In addition, the effect of geographical region, cultural background, level of development, and regime type are examined by ANOVA, and based on the result, all of these four factors have a significant effect on the level of anomie. Countries located in the Middle East and North Africa, and with an Islamic background experience more anomie compared to other countries. In addition, anomie of weak democracies are more than established autocracies suggesting the degree of governance is more important that the form of government.
Dwight Haase (Committee Chair)
Barbara Coventry (Committee Member)
Jerry Van Hoy (Committee Member)
102 p.

Recommended Citations

Citations

  • Etemadifar, A. (2016). Anomie and Development—A Cross-National Study [Master's thesis, University of Toledo]. OhioLINK Electronic Theses and Dissertations Center. http://rave.ohiolink.edu/etdc/view?acc_num=toledo1481128740686752

    APA Style (7th edition)

  • Etemadifar, Amin. Anomie and Development—A Cross-National Study. 2016. University of Toledo, Master's thesis. OhioLINK Electronic Theses and Dissertations Center, http://rave.ohiolink.edu/etdc/view?acc_num=toledo1481128740686752.

    MLA Style (8th edition)

  • Etemadifar, Amin. "Anomie and Development—A Cross-National Study." Master's thesis, University of Toledo, 2016. http://rave.ohiolink.edu/etdc/view?acc_num=toledo1481128740686752

    Chicago Manual of Style (17th edition)