Download 330 The Modern World PowerPoint

The Modern World
SOC 370: Social Change
Dr. Kimberly Martin
Global Modern Society
The modern world system is a capitalist world
system, which has developed along two lines:
1. a system of political/economic relations
between societies (nation-states).
2. a system of relations within each society modern (capitalist) social institutions.
Expansion and Deepening
There are two long-term dynamic processes
in the world economy.
1. The world economy has continually expanded
over the last 500 years and now is nearly
100% global. (mostly by force – coercion –
“opening up markets” and “free trade”)
2. The world economy has continually
“deepened” over the last 500 years,
extending the main forms of capitalist
culture into institutions. (This is an
increasingly global process.)
Euphemism 1
“Opening Up Markets “
In 1977 Nestle Corporation began advertising
breast milk substitutes (infant formula) in
Africa and other peripheral regions as
superior to breast milk. Mothers in these
regions could not afford formula, and had
no clean water to mix with the formula
powder but used it anyway. The result was
that millions of babies died. In 1984,
boycotters forced Nestlé to change its
practices.
Euphemism 2
“Free Trade”
NAFTA (The North American Free Trade
Agreement) removed all tariffs for the
movement of goods across U.S./Mexican
border, including corn over the past 14
years. The U.S. has dumped millions of
tons of subsidized corn each year into
the Mexican economy driving down the
price of corn so small farmers could no
longer make a living.
Deepening Mechanisms
Deepening occurs through
a. Commodification – making things that
have never been sold into products
b. Mechanization – the use of machines
in production
c. Contract model – the application of formal
(legal) contracts to human relationships
d. Proletarianization – the move from forced
labor to wage labor
e. Polarization – widening gap between core and
peripheral states
Forms of Imperialism
Neocolonialism
vs
Colonialism
Extensive economic penetration
Without formal
With formal
political rule
political rule
Corporations
Free Trade, etc
Colonies
“Hegemony”
• The everyday practices and shared beliefs of
a dominant class/country are absorbed by
those who are dominated, causing them to
cooperate in their own domination.
• Nation-state hegemony occurs when
superiority over all other nations in
production, commerce and finance and the
hegemon is able to compete domestically in all
other societies as well as internationally.
• “Once Were Warriors”
Cycles in World Systems
Two cyclical dynamics -- Kondratieff Waves and
Hegemony cycles.
Kondratieff Waves - 50 year cycles involving a boom
cycle that crests after about 25 years, followed by
a bust cycle that bottoms out after about 25
years, then a boom cycle starts again
1930 – 1955 – 1980 – 2005 – 2030 ?
Hegemony cycles - three “hegemons” (sort of a modern
version of empires) have risen and fallen over the
last 400 years –
Holland in the 1600’s,
England in the 1800’s,
U.S. in the 1900’s.
The Interstate System
Is the group of nation-states that make up the
world economy.
Dominated by CORE nations that work together
while jointly trying to extend capitalism
("open markets“ “democracy”) while
competing for dominance.
Over the last 500 years, boom-and-bust
cycles, wars, and hegemons have come and
gone while the interstate system has
continuously expanded its scope.
World Systems Development
FOUR STAGES IN DEVELOPMENT OF WORLD SYSTEMS
1. 1450 -1640 The World System began to emerge from the collapse of feudalism
(England & Japan)
- Spain and Portugal were first COREs followed by Netherlands in about 1625
- Latin America and Eastern Europe were peripheral
- Rest of the world was external
2. 1640 – 1760 Consolidation of world systems
- Competition between Netherlands and French/English challenge of their hegemony
- North America, Caribbean incorporated into world system
3. 1760 – 1917 (WWI) Global expansion of the WSYS
- Colonization
- British rise to hegemonic status
- Incorporation of the rest of the world into world system
- Conflict between CORE countries causes WWI).
4. 1917 to Present - Global deepening of the WSYS
- Continuing conflict between CORE countries causes WWII.
- The U.S. becomes the hegemonic CORE nation
- Massive mechanization of capitalist production
- Intensification and expansion of capitalist production semi & peripheral states
- The rise of the global corporation as the major world economic actor
- Socialist Soviet Union and Eastern Europe leave and return to capitalism
The Rise & Fall of Hegemony
1. What makes hegemons rise?
-
Geographic location (access to water transport)
Superior technology that allows cheap production
Diversified and highly efficient agriculture
Acquisition of cheap raw materials and staple foods from
peripheral countries
- Superior organizational strategies in economics and politics
2. What makes hegemons fall?
- Rivals undercut current hegemon
- Hegemony is VERY costly (technology and military)
- Productive efficiency always declines over time through age and
use of capital (machinery, etc.) that must be replaced = high
cost
- Organizational superiority is surpassed by other states
- The costs of the overall standard of living is too expensive to
be maintained (high wages, etc)
The World Systems Gap
Development vs Underdevelopment in the WSYS
Market forces resulting in capitalist deepening
is spreading the Core culture of consumption
Economic underdevelopment continues to make
the means unavailable to Semi-Peripheral
and Peripheral countries.
The rich countries are getting richer and
aspirations are increasing rapidly in the
poorest countries. They can see through
media what the possibilities are but can’t
get the means to acquire them.
Peripheral to Core GDP
Peripheral to CORE GDP ratios – richest to
poorest countries (Sanderson p. 203)
1750
1860
1913
1950
1977
2002
2
5
10
18
29
40+
to
to
to
to
to
to
1
1
1
1
1
1
(CIA World Factbook, 2002)
Modernization Theory
•
•
•
•
•
•
Originated inside the CORE
“One path” from traditional to modern – all
countries will follow sooner or later
Focuses on non-material culture – ignores
material/economic (an anti-Marxist theory), for
example the Protestant ethic vs Confusianism in
Japan
Their deficiencies, they need to change customs,
attitudes, etc.
Assumes that the actions of rich countries can and
will help them change
Reality – this is a “blaming the victim” approach
American Marxism
American Marxist Theories (1970’s)
Believed that capitalistic imperialism would
eventually lead to raised standard of living in semiperipheral and peripheral countries
Post WW2 Core reconstruction shared some wealth
downward for a while
Also, decline of postwar US hegemony in the 1970s was
encouraging
If these trends had continued these theories might
have been right but re-asserting of market forces
(globalization) led to return to old trends
Dependency Theory
Marxist-based theory hypothesizes that individual
countries develop or not based on relative status
with relation to other countries
Specific dominance/exploitation by dominant societies
creates and maintains under-development in
“trading partners”
Direct exploitation + elite complicity (“puppet
governments”)
“Structural distortion” – e.g., one-crop economies
“Dependent development” – e.g. partial uneven
development like Mexico
Kinds of Dependency
• Strong Dependency
– Economic development is impossible while
dependent
– Core capitalism is always detrimental to
underdeveloped countries/societies
• Weak/Soft Dependency
– A certain type and degree of economic
development is possible while dependent
World Systems Theory
Developed from Dependency Theory:
THE WORLD SYSTEM AS A WHOLE DEVELOPS
rather than individual countries.
THE WORLD ECONOMY consists of three basic “zones” - the
core, semi-periphery, & periphery.
CORE (“developed”) nations are industrialized,
modernized, prosperous, and dominant.
(US/Canada, Europe, Japan, Australia)
SEMI-PERIPHERY (“developing”) nations
are moving toward the core by industrializing,
modernizing, etc. (Mexico, S America, etc.)
PERIPHERY (“under-developed”) nations
are areas exploited for natural resources
and cheap labor. (India, Asia. Africa, etc.)
World Systems Theory
There have also been areas of the world that
were outside the world economy - these
are called “external arenas.”
China (still external)
Soviet bloc
Various parts of Asia and Africa
But now virtually the whole world in involved in
the world system
Core/Semi/Peripheral
Relationships
In the world economy, the CORE nations
intensely exploit both the S-P and P nations
while the S-P nations exploit the P nations to
a lesser extent.
There are intense rivalries among the CORE
nations (this is where most major wars have
come from – World War I, World War II, etc),
Mobility in the system is very limited
(Semi-Peripheral to CORE, Peripheral to SemiPeripheral, etc.).
World Systems Theory
Position in WSYS determined early, few
opportunities for change
Several different strategies when
opportunities do arise
E.g. Oil production
Specific markets
(India and technology), etc.
Evaluating Theories
Modernization theory is still the dominant assumption in most of
the Core countries, but nowhere else
(We’re the good guys and try to help, their problems are
their own fault)
The balance of historical factors and dependency in causing underdevelopment is still being debated and is still inconclusive (to
what extent is it structural, to what extent specific?)
The basic issue is short term benefit vs. long term dependency
from Core investment
E.g. Building factories makes jobs in the short term, but strips or
pollutes the environment in the long term and drains resources
and labor for exports
Sanderson’s Choice
“Soft Dependency Theory”
The World System is capitalist (market driven) and has developed
“unevenly” –
Once positioned in the system it is hard for a country to “break
out” but there are occasional opportunities for some countries to
partially break out
Some development continues in most countries but it continues to
be uneven and the poor countries will never catch up – resources
stress reinforces this (global resources cannot support broad
development)
So the poor countries are structurally (historically) disadvantaged
and dependency and global ecology reinforces the disadvantages
Where Are We Today?
Core countries are finding it hard to sustain
their economy due to exhausted resources,
pollution and wars
Semi-Peripheral countries are struggling with
issues of dependency, the gap between rich
and poor gap, and a growing socialist push
for “democracy” that will shrink the gap
Peripheral countries face a growing disaster
with no visible way out
Study Guide
Expansion
Deepening
Opening up markets
Free Trade
Commodification
Mechanization
Contract model
Proletarianization
Polarization
Neocolonialism
Colonialism
Hegemony
Kondratieff Waves
Hegemony Cycles
The interstate system
The world system gap
Modernization theory
American Marxism
Strong dependence theory
Weak/soft dependence theory
World systems theory
Core
Semi-periphery
Periphery
Structural distortion