The Development of the World System in the 19th and 20th Centuries

The purpose of this essay is to discuss the characteristics and development of the world system in the nineteenth and twentieth centuries.

A. Subsystems and their characteristics in the world system.

The three subsystems in the world system constitute the nations that form the core, the semi-periphery, and the periphery. Each of these differ in political, economic and social characteristics.

Core nations are politically centralized, have effective political institutions, have diverse and flexible economies, have high levels of discretion in the labor force, and great social fluidity, with traditions subject to revisions in light of the demands of modernity.

Semi-periphery nations are politically less centralized, have less effective political institutions, have mixed economies, have mixed degrees of discretion in the labor force, and mixed elements of traditionalism and modernism.

Peripheral societies are not very politically centralized, have ineffective political institutions, have economies focused on natural resources that lack diversity and flexibility, have little discretion in the labor force, and are socially very traditional, with modernity limited to small (almost always urban) pockets of the population.

According to Immanuel Wallerstein, hegemony can be defined as a situation in which the products of a certain core state are produced so efficiently that they are competitive even in other core states, so that the hegemonic core state will be the primary be

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espite its political centralization, it lacked effective modern political institutions, was not as industrialized as the core nations of that century, restricted labor's discretion by its class structure system, and retained many large pockets and areas of traditionality. Israel in the twentieth century is semi-peripheral largely because its religious agenda ties its entire society to a type of traditionalism that hampers its functioning as effectively in the world system as strictly secular states can. Although it is certainly a European-style liberal democracy, its precarious political position in the Middle East has continually drained its energies, preventing it from achieving the core status that such relatively small countries as those in Scandinavia have achieved. Further, Israel in the world order is very much a dependency of the United States, and could not have maintained itself without on-going American support. Many of the Islamic states that surround Israel regard it as a stalking horse for US interests, and many leftist American Jews take the same negative viewpoint toward Israel. D. Great Britain as the hegemonic society in the nineteenth century. The Netherlands were the hegemonic country in the world trade s

Category: History - T