Create a new account

It's simple, and free.

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 beneficiary of trade in a maximally free world market. The hegemonic state will have: marked superiority in agro-industrial production; dominance of the spheres of commercial distribution of world trade; profits accruing from being the entrepot of much of world trade; profits accruing from controlling transport, communications, and insurance; and control of the financial sectors of banking and investment. Progress in industrialization and in liber...

Page 1 of 5 Next >

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

Loading...
APA     MLA     Chicago
The Development of the World System in the 19th and 20th Centuries. (1969, December 31). In LotsofEssays.com. Retrieved 23:37, March 18, 2024, from https://www.lotsofessays.com/viewpaper/1709285.html