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Why did Spencer believe growing societies become more specialized and interdependent?

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Singapore — modernization An example of a thoroughly modernized, industrial city.

Herbert Spencer believed that societies evolve according to a universal, natural law: a transition from a state of relatively indefinite, incoherent homogeneity to a state of relatively definite, coherent heterogeneity.1

He argued that as societies grow in size, they inevitably become more complex. This growth necessitates that the parts of the society differentiate and specialize into distinct functions to sustain the whole. Consequently, as these specialized parts perform unique roles—such as government for regulation or industry for sustenance—they become increasingly interdependent, much like the organs within a biological organism.12

Spencer viewed this process as an evolutionary development where the division of labor transforms undifferentiated hordes into complex civilizations. In his view, this increasing specialization and interdependence were not merely social trends but fundamental characteristics of the evolutionary progress of human societies.21