Theory of Industrial Society, a modern bourgeois apologetic theory which asserts that scientific and technological progress is able to influence directly all aspects of social life. Its most prominent exponents are Raymond Aron, John Galbraith, Zbigniew Brzezinski and Daniel Bell. It is a continuation of Walt Rostow’s theory of stages of economic growth. According to its advocates, industrial society is a special stage of social development determined by the modern state of technology and organisation of production. It claims that the basic features of society at a particular stage of development are directly determined by the character of the tools of labour and production techniques rather than by production relations between people and classes. According to bourgeois theoreticians, production technology, being the decisive factor of social development, passes through certain stages of evolution. At each of these stages it gives rise to corresponding social institutions. Similar techniques engender similar social institutions. Therefore, the currently opposing systems of capitalism and socialism are bound to become more and more alike and eventually merge. The industrial society theoreticians take pains to avoid an analysis of class relations of production and give prominence to various features of modern large-scale production. They pay considerable attention to the state, considering it an important instrument of the “transformation” of modern capitalism. A feature of the industrial society theory is the concept of income equalisation. Specifically, the level of income is regarded as the most important indicator of the maturity of the industrial system. One variant of the theory of industrial society is that of post-industrial society founded by the American sociologist Daniel Bell. Unlike the industrial system theoreticians, who base their analysis on large-scale industrial production with its techniques and technology, Bell accentuates the organisation of science and theoretical knowledge. A postindustrial society is founded, not on the production of material benefits, but on the scientific institutions which are gradually becoming a kind of scientific and administrative complex wielding great influence. Bell claims this leads to the key decisionmaking process being gradually assumed by talented scientists promoted by all sections of society (“meritocracy”). An offshoot of the post-industrial society theory is Brzezinski’s technetronic era theory. Accentuating the significance of electronics and computer technology, Brzezinski asserts that all countries will inevitably enter a technetronic era pioneered by the USA. The objective of all the variants of the industrial society theory is to conceal the class antagonisms of bourgeois society. This is done by the absolutisation of scientific and technological progress and the ignoring of the role of production relations. The theories of industrial and post-industrial society also seek to prove that capitalism is being “transformed” peacefully and without revolutionary reforms into a new social system possessing many of the features of socialism.