Abstract: The relevance of the stated topic is due to the fact that the megatrend of the modern era is the modernization of traditional non-Western societies, which, unlike the modernization of Western countries, acquires an inorganic character. At the same time, democratization is declared the most important aspect of the modernization of society as the main prerequisite for dynamic social development. However, modernization processes in the non-Western world often acquire an imitative character, which leads to discrediting the very idea of modernization and weakening its social base. The purpose of this work is to identify the socio–cultural reasons for the emergence of imitation practices in modernizing societies. The theoretical basis of the work is the main provisions of the theory of modernization, as well as the concepts of social imitation presented in the works of A. A. Zinoviev, T. A. Shalyugina, D. E. Furman, etc. The interdisciplinary nature of the work requires a combination of socio-philosophical and cultural approaches to the problem of inorganic modernization of traditional non-Western cultures. Based on the analysis of modern concepts of modernization and imitation, the author proves that imitation is a necessary aspect of society's life, contributing to the development and use of socially useful knowledge, and during periods of modernization it becomes a consequence of asynchronous development of various spheres of the social system, when culture as the most conservative sphere of society does not have time to adapt to the processes occurring in other areas of social life. The desire of elites in the absence of socio-cultural prerequisites for democratic development to accelerate the process of modernization through democratization leads either to a dangerous destabilization of public life, or to imitation of Western European "models". Therefore, in non-Western countries, democratization cannot be the initial stage of modernization, and modernization itself should be gradual, since it should take into account the peculiarities of the culture of a modernizing society, the rhythms and pace of dynamics of various spheres of the socio-cultural system and adjust modernization strategies as the properties of this environment change.

Keywords: inertia of culture, traditional society, asynchrony of development, non-Western cultures, Western type of culture, imitation democracy, simulacrum, social imitation, inorganic modernization, foreign cultural innovations

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