World-System Theory
Economic Liberalism
Dependency Theory
Similarities
Theory explained in the video:
The World-System theory was used by the video implicitly to explain the causes of wealth accumulation and poverty.In the World-System theory, countries are separated into three different classes, the core, semiperiphery, and periphery. The core consists of powerful countries like United Kingdom and United States. Manufacturing regions are called core, extraction regions are called periphery, and regions where some manufacturing occurs and some capital concentrates are called semiperiphery. Most peripheral countries are in Africa and South Asia, where large amounts of raw materials were exported to the core countries during colonization as well as after colonization to be manufactured and sold in a much higher price. The video gave an example of how all the wheat in India was exported to Great Britain when it could have fed thousands of poor inside the country. Semiperiphery countries acts as a buffer to this system by giving periphery countries a small chance to rise out of poverty. These countries include Singapore, Taiwan, Eastern Europe, and Russia. However, most periphery regions remained extremely poor. This is shown in the movie when the rich countries (core) dump money into the poor countries (periphery). The World-Theory puts countries into economic classes, which is fully explain in the video with countries like the United States and India.
- Capitalist world economy.
- Focus on economic classes.
- The most important class struggle is between the core and the periphery of the world-system.
- Manufacturing regions are called core, extraction regions are called periphery.
- The core uses its power to concentrate surplus from the periphery.
- Semiperiphery is where some manufacturing occurs and some capital concentrates.
- Membership in the core, semiperiphery, and periphery change, but overall global system of class remains.
Economic Liberalism
- The lagging behind of the Global South is insignificant in comparison to the total economic growth
- liberal economies are the most efficient in maximizing economic growth and capital accumulation
- Promotes economic freedom and limit government intervention
- Believes in positive sum game, or an expanding pie
- Emphasize concentration of wealth as opposed to socialist distribution of wealth
- commitment to free trade, free capital flows, and an open world economy
- share similar ideas with mercantilism and neoliberalism
Dependency Theory
- It explains the lack of accumulation in the third world.
- Situation in which accumulation of capital cannot sustain itself internally.
- Enclave economy:
- Foreign countries invest third world country and extract their resources.
- Especially raw materials.
- After WWII, the third kind of dependency theory came out:
- Penetration of national economies by MNCs.
- Capital is provided externally, but the production is for local market.
- By the help of foreign investments, peasants, workers, and sometimes students and the church form alliances to work more equal distribution of income, human and political rights, and local control of the economy.
Similarities
- See the LEDCs as disadvantaged.
- In order to minimize the cost of product, MNCs usually extract resources from the LEDCs.
- LEDCs don’t have much power to pull themselves away from their current situations.
- World Dependency theories concentrate on economic classes instead of states.
- Economic Liberalism claims that everyone benefits in the long term from the North South Gap.
- Dependency Theory concentrates more on individual histories and internal developments.
Theory explained in the video:
The World-System theory was used by the video implicitly to explain the causes of wealth accumulation and poverty.In the World-System theory, countries are separated into three different classes, the core, semiperiphery, and periphery. The core consists of powerful countries like United Kingdom and United States. Manufacturing regions are called core, extraction regions are called periphery, and regions where some manufacturing occurs and some capital concentrates are called semiperiphery. Most peripheral countries are in Africa and South Asia, where large amounts of raw materials were exported to the core countries during colonization as well as after colonization to be manufactured and sold in a much higher price. The video gave an example of how all the wheat in India was exported to Great Britain when it could have fed thousands of poor inside the country. Semiperiphery countries acts as a buffer to this system by giving periphery countries a small chance to rise out of poverty. These countries include Singapore, Taiwan, Eastern Europe, and Russia. However, most periphery regions remained extremely poor. This is shown in the movie when the rich countries (core) dump money into the poor countries (periphery). The World-Theory puts countries into economic classes, which is fully explain in the video with countries like the United States and India.