The Capitalist World-Economy Concept

This research reviews the concept of the capitalist world-economy as that concept was developed by Immanuel Wallerstein (1979, pp. 1-293) and as that concept is perceived by other political-economists and historians. The initial discussion in this research reviews the development and structure of the capitalist world-economy, while the second discussion addresses the conflicting ideas relevant to world development, and the third discussion considers the conceptualization and actualization of world inequality.

Development and Structure: Capitalist World-Economy

Following the end of the Second World War, the industrialized countries of the world began to loosen their political control over those countries that were formerly their colonies. During the Colonial Period, terms of trade had been manipulated in favor of the occupying countries, and the terms of trade for developing countries in the contemporary period are, in many ways, a legacy of the Colonial Period (Spraos, 1983, p. 1).

In almost every instance, the countries that were decolonized became worse off economically in the immediate aftermath of freedom than they had been as colonies. One result was a world full of very poor independent countries. The world was soon introduced to a seemingly ever-changing description of these countries--"poor countries," "peripheral economies," "Third World countries," "undeveloped countries," "under developed countries

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d toward the manufacturing sectors of the peripheral economies that produce goods primarily for the core economies. The economic benefits of this activity in the peripheral economies derive primarily to a societal elite. The associated-dependent model posits that the socio-economic base thus developed in the peripheral economies both accept and foster unequal and antagonistic patterns of social organization and economic exploitation (Wallerstein, 1991, pp. 122-137). Cardoso (1968, pp. 79-103) observed that traditional, or light, industry in peripheral economies require increased consumption by the population masses in those countries, while dynamic, or heavy, industry in such countries produce intermediate and capital goods that are directed toward restricted markets with massive financial resources. Dynamic industry in peripheral economies, primarily foreign owned, subordinates traditional industry in peripheral economies. The capital flowing into peripheral economies is directed primarily toward dynamic industry. The resulting situation is one in which economic development is associated with and dependent upon entities in core economies, and wherein indigenous industrialists oppose any type of reform that would create an
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Some common words found in the essay are:
Stroup Studenmund, Third World, Cardoso Faletto, Development Adherents, Wallerstein Swanson, Trinidad Tobago, Immanuel Wallerstein, World Inequality, Wolf Hansen, Period Spraos, developing countries, peripheral economies, economic growth, terms trade, wallerstein immanuel, 1990 pp, developing country, capitalist world-economy, human capital, developed countries, 1990 pp 83-109, thirlwall 1990 pp, palma 1978 pp, wallerstein 1979 pp, population human capital,
Approximate Word count = 3275
Approximate Pages = 13 (250 words per page)

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