THEORIES OF GLOBAL STRATIFICATION which financial success was a sign of personal
virtue.
In human history, all societies on earth
began from poverty. But obviously that is not Individualism replaced communalism.
the case now. So what made some parts of
the world develop faster. And this could be 4 STAGES OF MODERNIZATION
answered by looking at the different global
1. TRADITIONAL STAGE - societies are structured
stratification.
around small, local communities with
Modernity Theory frames global stratification
production typically being done in family
as a function of technological and cultural
settings. Most time is spent on laboring to
differences between nations.
produce food, which creates a strict social
First event is the Columbian Exchange, this
hierarchy.
refers to the spread of goods, technology,
2. TAKE-OFF-STAGE - people begin to use their
education, and diseases between the
individual talents to produce things beyond
Americas and Europe.
the necessities. This innovation creates new
But for native Americans their population
markets for trade.
was ravaged by the disease brought about
3. TECHNOLOGICAL MATURITY - technological
by smallpox and measles.
growth begins to bear fruit in the form of
INDUSTRIAL REVOLUTION population growth, reductions in absolute
poverty levels and more diverse job
This is when new technologies, like steam opportunities.
power and mechanization, allowed countries 4. HIGH MASS CONSUMPTION - it is when
to replace human labor with machines and country is big enough that production
increase productivity. becomes more about wants than needs. Many
It only benefitted the wealthy in western of these countries put social support systems
countries. in place to ensure that all of their citizens
It gradually improved the standard of living have access to basic necessities.
for everyone Modernization theory, in general, argues that
So why is it that Industrial revolution not take if you invest in capital in better technologies,
hold everywhere? they will eventually raise production enough
Modernity argues that the tension between that there will be more wealth to go around
tradition and technological change is the and overall well-being will go up.
biggest barrier to growth. Critics of modernization theory argue that, in
A society that is more steeped in family many ways, it is just a new name for the idea
systems and traditions may be less willing to that capitalism is the only way for acountry to
adopt the technologies and the new social develop.Modernization theory sweeps a lot of
systems that often accompany them. historical factors under the rug hen it explains
So why Europe modernize? European and Nort American progress.
Protestant Reformation primed Europe to Blaming the victim concept, in this view, the
take on a progress-oriented way of life in theory essentially blames poor countries for
not being willing to accept change, putting
the fault on their cultural values and traditions
rather than acknowledging that outside forces
might be holding back those countries.
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DEPENDENCY THEORY AND THE LATIN AMERICA EXPERIENCE Peripherical nations are countries that are
less developed and receive an unequal
1500's, at one point the British distribution of the world's wealth.
empirecovered about one-fourth of the Core countries are more industrialized nations
world. who receive the majority of the world's
US which began sa colony sprawled out wealth.
through the North America and took control Dependenct theorist saw the development of
of Haiti, Puerto Rico, Guam, Philippines, the peripheral nations as stagnant because of
Hawaiian islands and parts of panama and the exploitative nature of the core countries.
Cuba. Andre Gunder Frank- rejected the idea that
Colonialism came the exploitation of both internal sources cause a country's
natural and human resources. (slave trade in underdevelopment, rather it is their
Africa) dependency to capitalistsystem causes lack of
In mid-nineteenth century, less human development.
resources and more about natural resources. Palma counted the latin American
European countries took control of land and underdevelopment as the "excessive"
raw materials. reliance on exports of primary commodities.
Most colonies lasted until the 1960's and the Cardoso and faletto believed that the latin
last British colony was Hongkong which American economies were the results of
finally granted independence in 1997. capitalist expansion in the United States and
Why most of the countries in the world not Europe.
developing? In other words "dependency" was used to
Because most of the countries are not underscore the extent to which the economic
pursuing the right economic policies or their and political development of poor countries
government are authoritarian and corrupt. was conditioned by the global economy.
Dependency is the condition in which the It is also held that dependency was
development of the nation-states of the perpetuated by the ensemble of ties among
South contributed to a decline in their groups and classes both between and within
independence and to an increase in nations. This is the concept of "linkage".
economic development of the countries of
the North. MODERN WORLD SYSTEM
It argues, that liberal trade causes greater
impoverishment, not economic improvement High income nations as the "core" of the
to less developed countries. world economy. This core is the
Dependency theory focuses on how poor manufacturing base of the planet where
countries have been wronged by richer resources funnel in to become the technology
nations. and wealth enjoyed by the Western world
Global stratification starts with colonialism. today.
Dependency theory initially developed by Low income countries are the "periphery",
hans Singer and Paul Prebisch in the 1950. whose natural resources and labor support
the wealthier countries, first as colonies and
now working for multinational corporations
under neocolonialism.
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Middle income countries such as Brazil and
India are considered semi-periphery due to
their closer ties to the global economic core.
Just as modernization had its critics, so does
dependency theory. Critics argue that the
world economy is not a zero-sum-game- one
country getting richer does not mean other
countries are getting poorer. Innovation and
technological growth can spill over to
countries, improving all nations well-being
and not just the rich.
Singapore and Sri Lanka now have growing
economies.
In direct contrast to what dependency theory
predicts, most evidence nowadays that
foreign investment by richer nations help
and do not hurt poor countries.
Dependency theory is also narrowly focused,
pointing finger at the capitalist market
system as the sole cause of stratification,
ignoring the role of things like how culture
and political regimes play in impoverishing
countries.
By learning about economic globalization, we
are able to know about the issues and
debate about it.
We are able to think critically about solutions
to the various problems brought about by
globalization.
