EN
It is not unusual in science as in common life that a concept emerges but becomes useless after some time, or, it becomes fashionable then disappears. A scientific concept that initially appeared to be capable of explaining everything, having almost absolute value 'shrinks' to its real content with the development of learning. As such, it fits into the system of often similarly born concepts this time expressing real phenomena, with its true explanatory meaning. 'Modernisation' seems to be one of those concepts. Though the word itself appeared already in the 19th century, it became fashionable in academic literature a couple of decades ago. After World War II and nowadays its real content has unfolded, and the phenomena covered by the concept can be outlined, hence it can be used with real explanatory force in understanding our social phenomena and processes.