The Modern World System

Ch 14

The Modern System

The Emergence of the World SystemIndustrializationStratificationThe World System Today

The Emergence of the World System

World system shaped by world capitalist economy

3 political and economic specialization positionsCoreSemiperipheryPeriphery

• Modern world system – global system in which nations are economically and politically interdependent

• Capitalist world economy – single world system committed to production for sale or exchange, with the object of maximizing profits rather than supplying domestic needs

Wallerstein’s World System Theory

Capital – wealth or resources invested in business, with the intent of producing a profit

Capital is a social relationship, not an object

• Core nations – strongest and most powerful nations

Wallerstein’s World System Theory

Technologically advanced, capital-intensive products produced and exported to the semiperiphery and the periphery

Semiperiphery nations – industrialized Third World nations Lack power and economic dominance of

core nations

• Periphery nations – nations whose economic activities are less mechanized

Wallerstein’s World System Theory

Primarily concerned with exporting raw materials and agricultural goods to core and semiperiphery nations

Telecommunications allows well-educated workers in such low-wage countries as India to compete with skilled U.S. workers

Core/Periphery/Margins: Core/Semi-Periphery/Periphery;Courtesy www.archatlas.dept.shef.ac.uk/Trade/CPM3a.jpg

Industrialization

Industrial Revolution – socioeconomic transformation in Europe, after 1750 through industrialization of the economy

Seurat Locomotive

Causes of the Industrial Revolution

Widely used goods whose manufacture could be broken down into simple routines that machines could perform

Population increasing dramatically & fueled consumption of raw materials

• Began in cotton, iron, and potter trades

Courtesy: globallearning.pwnet.org

IndustrializationMax Weber argued

pervasiveness of “C of E” Protestant

beliefs contributed to spread and success of industrialization in England

Catholicism inhibited industrialization in France

Industrial Stratification

Factory owners soon began to recruit cheap labor from among the poorest populations.

Prosperity uneven Social & health problems emerged

• Initially industrialization in England raised the overall standard of living

Industrial Stratification

Bourgeoisie – owned means of production Working class (proletariat) – had to sell

labor to survive Proletarianization – separation of workers

from the means of production

• Marx saw trend as expression of fundamental capitalist opposition: bourgeoisie (capitalists) versus proletariat (propertyless workers)

Social Class StratificationK. Marx’ “Class

consciousness” – recognition of

collective interests and personal

identification with one’s economic group

Viewed classes a powerful collective

forces that could mobilize human

energies to influence history

Industrial Stratification

Developed model with three main factors contributing to socioeconomic stratification:Wealth (economic status)Power (political status)Prestige (social status)

• Weber argued that Marx’s model was oversimplified

Stratification

Growing middle class and existence of peripheries within core nations complicate issue beyond the vision of Marx or Weber

• With modification, combination of Marxian and Weberian models can describe modern capitalist world

The World System Today

Mass production gave rise to a culture of overconsumption Acquisitiveness Conspicuous consumption

The spread of industrialization and overconsumption takes place from core to periphery

American informal economy at the periphery

Tennessee family, 1936

Garment industry pays low wages

People rely on swap meets, other informal economies

Industrial Degradation Expansion of world system

often accompanied by genocide, ethnocide, and ecocide

Industrial Revolution accelerated encompassment of world by agrarian-based states, all but eliminating previous cultural adaptations

•Foraging•Pastoralism•Horticulture

Questions for Consideration:

What are 1 way that you personally are

connected in the Modern World System?

In what ways might key powerful individuals

in peripheral nations enable exploitation of

their nations’ resources?

Colonialism Imperialism – Formal

rule over foreign nations

Colonialism domination of territory and its people political, social,

economic, and cultural forms of domination

Physical or IdeologicalColoniesPith helmet

of the Second French Empire<en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Colonialism>

Colonialism

European colonialism had two phases

– “Age of Discovery” (1492–1852)– 1850 to just after end of World War II

• Dominated by Britain and France

• British empire covered fifth of world’s land surface and ruled fourth of its population

British Colonialism

Driven by need for economic expansion First phase concentrated in the New World,

west Africa, and India Closed with American Revolution

• During the second period of colonialism, Britain eventually controlled most of India, Australia, New Zealand, Canada, and large portions of eastern and southern Africa

British Colonialism

British colonial efforts justified by what Kipling called “white man’s burden”

Began to fall apart after W.W. II

• French colonialism driven by state, church, and military, rather than by business interests

French Colonialism

First phase, starting in early 1600s, focused in Canada, the Louisiana Territory, the Caribbean, and parts of India

Second phase (1870 to W.W. II) included most of North Africa and Indochina

• Ideological legitimization for French colonialism was mission civilisatrice (similar to “white man’s burden”)

French Colonialism

Spread French culture, language, and religion throughout the colonies

French & British used 2 forms of rule:Indirect rule: practice of governing through

native political structures and leadersDirect rule: practice of imposing new

governments upon native populations

Many modern political boundaries in west Africa based on linguistic, political, and economic contrasts as result of European colonial policies

Colonialism and Identity

• Whole countries, along with social groups and divisions within them, were colonial inventions

Postcolonial Studies

Settler countries: large numbers of European colonists and sparser native populations

Nonsettler postcolonies: large native populations and only a small number of Europeans

Mixed postcolonies: sizable native and European populations

• Postcolonial: study of interactions between European nations and the societies they colonized

Development

Economic development plans: industrialization, modernization, westernization, and individualism are desirable evolutionary advances that will bring long-term benefits to natives

• Intervention philosophy: ideological justification for outsiders to guide local peoples in specific directions

Neoliberalism

Free trade best way for nation’s economy to develop

No restrictions on manufacturing No barriers to commerce No tariffs

• Neoliberalism: governments should not regulate private enterprise; free market forces should rule

Neoliberalism

Since fall of Communism (1989–1991), revival of economic liberalism In exchange for loans, governments of

postsocialist and developing nations must accept neoliberal premise that deregulation leads to economic growth

• Prevailed in U.S. until President Roosevelt’s New Deal during the 1930s