Question

How is global inequality perpetuated, according to dependency and world systems theory? Include some discussion of historical legacy.

Answer 1

The world systems theory proposed by Immanuel Wallerstein attempts to explain the effect of modernization on different parts of the world. He views the world as a system rather than individual countries and shows how after the breakdown of feudalism transformed north-western Europe into the predominant commercial and political power. He explains how the expansion of the capitalist world economy altered political systems and labour conditions wherever it was able to penetrate. However, the analysis by Wallerstein brings about the fact that wherever the capitalist world system has managed to penetrate it has brought about unequal development. The consequent development has caused economic and social disparities between sections of the world economy and perpetuated global inequality.He classified the world into the core, semi-periphery and periphery.

• The core consisted of the developed countries that control world wages and monopolise the production of manufactured goods.

• The semi-peripheral zone includes countries like South Africa or Brazil. These countries have the characteristic of both the core and the periphery. They have urban centres like the core but also have areas of rural poverty which resemble the peripheral countries.
• Finally, there are the peripheral countries mainly in Africa. These bottom countries are responsible for providing the raw materials to the core and semi-periphery. These periphery countries also serve as markets for the core countries that attempt to market their manufactured goods.