The document examines the evolution of kibbutzim in Israel. The author suggests that a primary factor in the kibbutz development is the nature and structure of Israeli modernization efforts. The efforts encompass national ideology, industrialization, and legitimization of certain forms of social interaction. This mode of modernization stands in opposition to kibbutz utopian ideology and kibbutz socialist-communal efforts. However, as the State moves along the Western-modernization continuum, the kibbutz movement does not possess the autonomy, national power, or commitment to move in an alternative direction. For example, the national military role of the kibbutz challenges the community's need for peace and long-range security. Also, the delicate balance between individualism and mass culture has increasingly given way to norms of individualism and mass culture. The study indicates that small-scale socialist experiments cannot creatively grow within a larger opposing culture without undermining their ideology. Thus, a new perspective concerned with the problem of integrating local interests with global concerns is needed. (Author/KC)