...There are different theories that relate to the global economy. One of these theories is the world systems theory, which was developed by Wallerstein. This theory acts as a model that describes all the changes that resulted in shaping the world into what it is today. Its focus is specifically on the changes that took place in Western Europe a few centuries ago during a period of significant economic development. The world systems theory saw the division of the world into some three parts, which are the core, the semi-periphery, and the periphery. The core mainly comprised those countries that were economically developed as the United States, countries from Western Europe, and Japan. The semi-periphery included those countries from Asia that were less developed while the periphery included those countries that were very rich in resources, but very poor and highly underdeveloped. These countries were mainly from Africa and Latin America (Frank, 2001). The world systems theory takes a Marxian approach in understanding the lack of development particularly in Latin America and Africa. This theory is materialist as it oversees politically and cultural, the collective and religious characteristics of the country all determined by the economy and it is an analysis of the system because all is perceived as one organization. The world systems theory is an analysis of capitalism and thus it finds its origination in the Annales School and the dependency theories. This theory was developed...
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...Theories of Political Economy Instructor: Professor Béla Greskovits Office phone: 327-3079 e-mail: greskovi@ceu.hu Time: tba. Room: tba. Office Hours: tba. This course introduces students into three traditions of thought on the relationship between politics and the economy: both the economic constraints on politics and the political embeddedness of the economy. The conceptual frameworks studied include Neo-Marxist and Marx-inspired theories, historical institutionalism, and economic approaches to politics based on the assumptions of neo-classical economics. Students will be acquainted with these lines of thought by discussing important works by representative authors. Readings by Wallerstein, Cardoso and Faletto, Wright, and Mamalakis, represent world-sytem analysis, the dependencia thought, analytic Marxism, and sectoral theory. Historical institutionalism is discussed on the basis of the path-breaking work of Polanyi, and the comparative studies of Schoenfield, Katzenstein, and Gourevitch, who focus, respectively, on the changing balance of public and private power, variants of corporatism, and state autonomy in capitalist societies. Finally, Downs’ economic theory of democracy, the rival views of collective action by Olson, and Hirschman, and North’s work on the relationship between institutional change and economic performance introduce the economic approaches to politics. Requirements and grading Active participation in in-class discussions (20% of final...
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...Superpowers geography How is power exercised and maintained? Direct power in the most obvious way of exercising and maintaining power. Exercise of direct power • British imperialism – wholesale conquest of countries. Insurgency put down by force. • Military power – US navy has 12 aircraft carriers and 70 submarines. It is the most powerful military machine on Earth. It established a ring of bases to surround the USSR in the Cold War era, as part of its policy of containment. The Iraq war saw the USA effectively “go it alone.” • Some economic power is direct. The USA plays a major role in world trade, much of which is conducted in $. The US $ is the world’s reserve currency. • A key area of US international prestige since the 1960s has been the exploration of space. 1969 saw men on the moon. The USA aims to build a moon base by 2020 and visit Mars by 2037. Exercise of indirect power • Neo-colonialism (term coined by Kwame Nkrumah, first president of Ghana) is a form of indirect control over developing counties, most of them former colonies. Has neo-colonialism prevented any real development progress in the 40 years since colonies gained their independence? Africa could lead us to say yes. India could lead us to say no. • Some people say the IGOs were set up by superpowers for superpowers. The IMF was set up in 1944. It has its headquarters in Washington. Counties wishing to have their debt relieved have to apply Western...
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...>>> español INTRODUCTION THEORY OF MODERNIZATION THEORY OF DEPENDENCY THEORY OF WORLD-SYSTEMS THEORY OF GLOBALIZATION A MODO DE COLOFON BIBLIOGRAPHY NOTES 1. Introduction The main objective of this document is to synthesize the main aspects of the four major theories of development: modernization, dependency, world-systems and globalization. These are the principal theoretical explanations to interpret development efforts carried out especially in the developing countries. These theoretical perspectives allow us not only to clarify concepts, to set them in economic and social perspectives, but also to identify recommendations in terms of social policies. For the purposes of this paper, the term development is understood as a social condition within a nation, in which the authentic needs of its population are satisfied by the rational and sustainable use of natural resources and systems. This utilization of natural resources is based on a technology, which respects the cultural features of the population of a given country. This general definition of development includes the specification that social groups have access to organizations, basic services such as education, housing, health services, and nutrition, and above all else, that their cultures and traditions are respected within the social framework of a particular country. In economic terms, the aforementioned definition indicates that for the population of a country, there are...
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...Summary Critical Discussion Conclusion Reference 3 3 4 5 6 Based on the following three articles: · Immanuel Wallerstein, „The Rise and Future Demise of the World Capitalist System“, Comparative Studies in Society and History 16 (1974), pp. 387-415. · Jagdish Bhagwati, „Free Trade: Old and New Challenges‟ The Economic Journal, 104(423) (1994), pp. 231-46. · Alice Amsden, „The State and Taiwan‘s Economic Development,‟ in George Crane & Abla Amawi (eds.) The Theoretical Evolution of International Political Economy (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1997), pp. 193-207. 2 1. Introduction This paper is a critical discussion of the central aspect: „The World Economy and the Logic of Economic (Under-) Development“ in the Global Political Economy. The foundation of this paper is based on three pieces: Wallerstein (1974), Bhagwati (1994) and Amsden (1997) which all provide different views about the world economy in terms of political and theoretical approaches. The introduction will be followed by a short summary concerning the protectionism that is evident throughout and the resulting ethical issues. The critical discussion will compare and evaluate the assumptions and concepts of each article which will then be concluded with the addition of my point of view. 2. Summary Immanuel Wallerstein‘s: „The Rise and Future Demise of the World Capitalist System“, from a Marxist point of view, describes a single world system which is split into three stages and any state in the world will...
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...Dimensions of Social Inequality Julie McElwain Park University Abstract Social inequality is how different categories of individuals are prescribed by the society. The society uses basic characteristics such as gender, sex, education, and ethnicity among other factors in order to categorize an individual. The social inequalities determine the access to limited goods such as market labor force, education, health care facilities, and other forms of participation in the society. Different forms of social inequalities are constructs of geographical distribution, and status within the country, however, cultural aspects, mostly integrated with cultural identities, of society are perceived to be the major contributor of social inequality. Discourses have, therefore, been raised on whether the poor deserve to be poor or not and whether the rich deserve to be rich or not. In order to address this question, I examined different dimensions of social inequalities in my life such as social class, educational level, and race among other factors. In this paper, I will also try to bring out understanding of different theories in attempt to explain social stratification. A comparison will be done between different perspectives through interviews and my own perspective of social inequalities. In essence all factors discussed in this paper show a link between social inequalities and different factors such as economic and political system. Trends such as widening inequalities...
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...Thanks to Jim Skinner’s no-nonsense leadership, the global restaurant juggernaut is doing better than ever. Luckily for McDonald’s, Skinner is an operations whiz who has turned the restaurant giant into a well-oiled machine, insisting on planning and accountability throughout the company. Skinner isn’t a micromanager. He’s simply intensely focused on the efficiency and performance of McDonald’s MCD 0.68% 33,000 restaurants worldwide and the enormous, complex infrastructure that supports them, a managerial trait that has resulted in nothing short of a Golden Age for the Golden Arches. Since Skinner, 66, became CEO in 2004, the company has delivered an annual growth rate of 5%, with revenue topping $24 billion last year. Same-store sales, a closely watched industry metric, have climbed each of the seven years of his tenure, and in that time the stock has returned more than 250% — even after the early-August equities selloff — vs. 16% for the S&P 500 (SPX). [Click here to read our 2005 story about how McDonald’s got CEO succession right.] If you haven’t been in a McDonald’s lately, you might assume that the company simply has been the beneficiary of the struggling economy in the U.S. and elsewhere in the world, and that cost-conscious consumers are flocking to fast-food eateries instead of sit-down restaurants. But to post the kind of impressive numbers McDonald’s has — and to weather the current turmoil — Skinner has had to find ways to attract new diners while retaining the...
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...Introduction To Sociology II notes by Mutangi G T Sociology is the study of human social life. Because human social life is so expansive, sociology has many sub-sections of study, ranging from the analysis of conversations to the development of theories to try to understand how the entire world works. This chapter will introduce you to sociology and explain why it is important, how it can change your perspective of the world around you, and give a brief history of the discipline. History Sociology is a relatively new academic discipline. It emerged in the early 19th century in response to the challenges of modernity. Increasing mobility and technological advances resulted in the increasing exposure of people to cultures and societies different from their own. The impact of this exposure was varied, but for some people included the breakdown of traditional norms and customs and warranted a revised understanding of how the world works. Sociologists responded to these changes by trying to understand what holds social groups together and also explore possible solutions to the breakdown of social solidarity. Early Sociological Studies Early sociological studies considered the field to be similar to the natural sciences like physics or biology. As a result, many researchers argued that the methodology used in the natural sciences were perfectly suited for use in the social sciences, including Sociology. The effect of employing the scientific method and stressing empiricism was the...
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...ABSTRACT. The notion social class attains a well-defined theoretical content in the works of the classical political economists, who defined classes on the basis of the specific income form that each category of people (class) obtains. This approach to class constitutes a first form of a "friendly merger" between political economy and sociology. When combined with the classical labor value theory, it has led to a theory of class exploitation of the laboring class by the capitalist class. As economic theory became increasingly apologetic after the "Marginalist Revolution" (setting itself the aim of justifying capitalism), the theory of class has been totally banished from the corpus of "modern (neoclassical) economic science." This paper claims that the scientific elements inherent in classical political economy's class theory were preserved by the Marxist class theory, which further revolutionized the classical approach, creating a new, purely non-economistic and non-mechanistic "relationist" class theory, an d forming thus a vivid economic-sociological approach to social classes. On the basis of the Marxist approach, complex problems concerning the class structure of contemporary societies can be tackled. I Introduction THE THEORY OF CLASSES MAKES UP one of the most controversial chapters of the social sciences, in the sense that it comprises a forefront of confrontation between the different theoretical schools that are formulated within the field. To clarify what is to...
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...We have come a long way from the days of Feudalism where Lords were land (fief) owners and the vassals were the common folk who provided a service to the Lord for use of the land, whether it is to serve in the military or other forms as requested. This was the way of life in medieval times, up until the 15th century (Hirst, 2012). From here, the transition began from Feudalism to the early stage Capitalism, where the ordinary people broke away from the Feudal system and owned property and the means of production as well as the resources to make and maintain wealth (Dictionary.com, 2012). England in the 1800’s was hard in comparison to today. The life expectancy for a man aged 20 in 1850 was 60.1 years compared to 76.7 in 2004 (Geoff Canyon's Appeal to Authority, 2009). This was mainly due to the living conditions and especially those in the poor area of East London, where animals not only shared the often over crowed living area with humans but also the human waste that was thrown onto the streets. Often those who lived in the bottom apartments lived close to if not in the stench, more so than those who lived multiple stories above the streets. With the pollution of human waste in the streets and the polluted River Thames from the sewage of the West End, no matter where you lived in the East End, you still had to walk through the rising filth. These living conditions were the main reason for the various outbreaks of diseases, sores and premature deaths during the 1800’s...
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...Improving Perspectives of International Political Economy International Political Economy is a collection of aspects from economics, political science, sociology, history and some philosophy. With information coming from multiple sources there are bound to be numerous different perspectives of IPE. The three most common and well known perspectives examined will be liberalism, mercantilism and historical structuralism. Being that these are the three most accepted perspectives suggests that the majority of the views within these theories are strengths. However, with so much information, there are bound to be weaknesses and flaws found within these theories as well. There are always ways to improve on these the weaknesses and theories in general. International Political Economy deals with three main approaches: liberalism, historical structuralism and mercantilism. Each theory has its own strengths and weaknesses, but the way to improve them all is not to fix each individual weakness but to combine the strengths of all the perspectives into to create an entirely new theory. Liberalism is often described as the IPE perspective that focuses on the individual and the primacy of freedom or liberty in the book “Introduction to International Political Economy” by David Balaam and Michael Veseth. Individual freedom and capitalism are the overarching ideas found within the idea of liberalism. Capitalism is commonly referred to as a market-based economic system where free-markets...
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...Myth of the Global Corporation (Princeton University Press, 1998). Reich has also published many book chapters and articles in journals such as International Organization, International Interactions, The Review of International Political Economy, and German Politics and Society. He has received fellowships from the Sloan Foundation and the Kellogg Institute and was awarded an International Affairs Fellowship from the Council on Foreign Relations. His current work is on the issue of the definitions and central propositions of globalization. This paper was written during my stay at the Kellogg Institute. I wish to express my appreciation to the fellows and staff of the Institute for all their help on this project, notably to Scott Mainwaring who is now director of the Institute. Introduction The end of the Cold War provided a major shock for scholars of politics and policy in at least two respects. First, it provided a classic example of the limitations of both social and policy sciences predictive capacity. Few foresaw, let alone predicted, the tumultuous events that marked the end of the decade. Second, those events simultaneously dislodged the organizing principle—the foundation—upon which much of the study of international relations was constructed in the...
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...PHILOSOPHY OF HUMAN RIGHTS Critical Theories of Globalization Chamsy el-Ojeili Department of Sociology, Victoria University of Wellington, New Zealand Patrick Hayden School of International Relations, University of St Andrews, UK © Patrick Hayden and Chamsy el-Ojeili 2006 All rights reserved. No reproduction, copy or transmission of this publication may be made without written permission. No paragraph of this publication may be reproduced, copied or transmitted save with written permission or in accordance with the provisions of the Copyright, Designs and Patents Act 1988, or under the terms of any licence permitting limited copying issued by the Copyright Licensing Agency, 90 Tottenham Court Road, London W1T 4LP. Any person who does any unauthorized act in relation to this publication may be liable to criminal prosecution and civil claims for damages. The authors have asserted their rights to be identified as the authors of this work in accordance with the Copyright, Designs and Patents Act 1988. First published 2006 by PALGRAVE MACMILLAN Houndmills, Basingstoke, Hampshire RG21 6XS and 175 Fifth Avenue, New York, N. Y. 10010 Companies and representatives throughout the world PALGRAVE MACMILLAN is the global academic imprint of the Palgrave Macmillan division of St. Martin’s Press, LLC and of Palgrave Macmillan Ltd. Macmillan® is a registered trademark in the United States,...
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...GLOBALIZATION BACKLASH AND THE RISE OF ANTI-HEGEMONIC PARTY STATES Diego Olstein Hebrew University of Jerusalem Contents Introduction: Globalization and Anti-Hegemonic Party State………………………………..5 Part I: Principle Chapter 1: Defining Anti-Hegemonic Party State………………………………………………….18 Chapter 2: Anti-Hegemonic Party State and Domestic Features of Political Regimes…………………………………………………………………………………………… 44 Chapter 3: Anti-Hegemonic Party State and Exogenous Perspective on Political Regimes……………………………………………………………………………………………75 Part II: History Chapter 4: The Global Rise of Anti-Hegemonic Party States and Globalization Backlash 1917-1945...…………………………………………………………….91 Chapter 5: The Big Leap of Anti-Hegemonic Party States: The Second Wave 1946-1975…………………………………………………………………………………………………………………111 Chapter 6: Globalization Anew and the Marginalization of Anti-Hegemonic Party States 1976-2010………………………………………………………142 Conclusions Introduction: Globalization and Anti-Hegemonic Party State In 1997 the European Commission defined Globalization “as the process by which markets and production in different countries are becoming increasingly interdependent due to the dynamics of trade in goods and services and flows of capital and technology. It is not a new phenomenon but the continuation...
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...FROM WID TO GAD: CONCEPTUAL SHIFTS IN THE WOMEN AND DEVELOPMENT DISCOURSE Abstract The Fourth World Conference on Women, to be held in Beijing in September 1995, provides an opportunity for the world community to focus attention on areas of critical concern for women worldwide concerns that stem from social problems embracing both men and women, and that require solutions affecting both genders. One of the main objectives of the Conference is to adopt a platform for action, concentrating on some of the key areas identified as obstacles to the advancement of women. UNRISDs work in preparation for the Fourth World Conference on Women focuses on two of the themes highlighted by the United Nations Commission on the Status of Women: 2 inequality in women’s access to and participation in the definition of economic structures and policies and the productive process itself; and 2 insufficient institutional mechanisms to promote the advancement of women. The Institutes Occasional Paper series for Beijing reflects work carried out under the UNRISD/UNDP project, Technical Co-operation and Women’s Lives: Integrating Gender into Development Policy. The activities of the project include an assessment of efforts by a selected number of donor agencies and governments to integrate gender issues into their activities; the action-oriented part of the project involves pilot studies in Bangladesh, Jamaica, Morocco, Uganda and Viet Nam, the goal of which is to initiate a policy dialogue between...
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