World Systems Theory Essay ⋆ Business Essay Examples ⋆ EssayEmpire

World systems theory is a theory of economic development that views the world as one complex social system driven by economic activity. From this theoretical perspective, economic development is to be understood in terms of the positions of and roles played by nations in the highly interactive global economic system. Arguably the greatest contribution of world systems theory to the understanding of economic development is its consideration of what are called semi peripheral nations and the important roles they play in the global economic system. An understanding of world systems theory is instrumental in appreciating the complex systemic nature of both today’s global economy and, within this context, regional and national economic development.

Origins And Foundational Contentions

World systems theory is influenced by early Marxist thought on imperialism and capitalist exploitation. However, it is based most directly on the work of Immanuel Wallerstein in the 1970s and 1980s. The central focus of world systems theory differs significantly from that of other major theories of economic development (e.g., dependency theory and modernization theory). It does not, for example, focus on regional or national stages of development—most typically toward the standard of the United States. It also does not concern itself primarily with the level of control wealthy, highly developed, and heavily industrialized core nations hold over poor, underdeveloped, and largely unindustrialized peripheral countries. Instead, world systems theory focuses on the developmental implications of the particular positions nations occupy—and the roles they play—within a closed, interactive global social system driven by economic activity.

World systems proponents hold that this focus on the global system and the positions nations occupy within it is necessitated by the fact that there is but one world economy within which exists but one (global) division of labor. World systems theorists do recognize that the regions and nations of the world have separate and unique histories and developmental trajectories and states. However, world systems theorists contend that these histories and developmental trajectories and states cannot be meaningfully understood without first situating analysis of them in the context of the complex, interactive global system of economic activity.

The Semiperiphery

One of the main criticisms of dependency theory (of economic development) is that it grossly oversimplifies the nature of global economic activity by focusing on only two types of nations. The first type consists of affluent, heavily industrialized, highly developed, core countries from which emanates the bulk of global economic activity (e.g., the United States, Japan, Germany, and the United Kingdom). The second group of countries includes poor, unindustrialized, underdeveloped, inwardly focused peripheral nations (e.g., Burundi, Rwanda, Tanzania, and Zambia). World systems theory overcomes this alleged deficiency via development of the notion of the semiperiphery and in-depth analysis of the roles played by semiperipheral nations (e.g., Brazil, Mexico, India, Canada, China, South Korea, Australia, and South Africa) in the global economic system.

From the world systems perspective, semiperipheral nations exist between the core and the periphery and are seen as important to global system functioning for both political and economic reasons. Politically, the semiperiphery serves as a form of “middleclass social buffer,” lessening the possibility of mass rebellion by the oppressed peoples of the world. This reasoning is based on the assumption that members of civil society in the (heavily populated) semiperiphery are not likely to join in rebellion with their counterparts in the periphery because they tend to see themselves as better off than the poorest of the— peripheral—poor rather than worse off than persons living in core nations. Economically, semiperipheral nations are important to global system functioning mainly because they often serve as low-wage, (foreign direct) investment-friendly export platforms for (core-based) manufacturing organizations. Here, the semiperiphery produces products that are consumed by people worldwide.

Today, semiperipheral nations play key roles in the global economic system for another reason not emphasized in original conceptualizations of world systems theory. As semiperipheral nations develop economically—as a result, for example, of more and more people moving from self-sufficiency in rural areas to relatively well-paid urban manufacturing jobs—they increasingly become viable consumer markets for an expanding range of products (produced both in the semiperiphery and elsewhere). This is particularly important given the large populations of many semiperipheral nations.

Bibliography:

Lauren A. Benton, “From the World-Systems Perspective to Institutional World History: Culture and Economy in Global Theory,” Journal of World History (v.7/2, 1996);
Peter Evans, “Beyond Center and Periphery: A Comment on the Contribution of the World System Approach to the Study of Development,” Sociological Inquiry (v.49/4, 1979);
Gary Gereffi, “The International Economy and Economic Development,” in The Handbook of Economic Sociology, N. J. Smelser and R. Swedberg, eds. (Princeton University Press, 1994);
Terence K. Hopkins and Immanuel Maurice Wallerstein. World-Systems Analysis: Theory and Methodology, Explorations in the WorldEconomy (v.1, 1982);
Immanuel Wallerstein, The Capitalist World-Economy (Cambridge University Press, 1979);
Immanuel Wallerstein, “The Present State of the Debate on World Inequality,” in World Inequality: Origins and Perspectives on the World System, I. Wallerstein, ed. (Black Rose Books, 1975);
Immanuel Wallerstein, “The Rise and Future Demise of the World Capitalist System: Concepts for Comparative Analysis,” Comparative Studies in Society and History (v.16/4, 1974).

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