What is global stratification?
In a system of global stratification, the units are countries, much like a system of stratification within countries in which the units are individuals or families. One manifestation of global stratification is the great inequality in life chances that differentiates nations around the world, with poorer nations experiencing the greatest gap between rich and poor within their own country and between countries. Nations no longer can be understood independently from the global hierarchical system of stratification. Evidence of the effects of the global economy on inequality is illustrated by the public’s increased concern and protests about world trade policies that favor U.S. consumers over adequate wages for overseas workers.
Rich and Poor
The huge gap in wealth between countries at the top of the global stratification system and those at the bottom is a major dimension of stratification between countries.
The annual per capita Gross National Income (per capita GNI) is one measure of global stratification—measures each person’s annual share of his or her country’s income, should the proceeds be shared equally.
Using the per capita GNI, we can compare the richest and poorest nations to establish the world’s equivalents of the upper class and lower class nations.The richest are industrialized, mostly urban, mostly in Western Europe, including the United States and Japan. The poorest are becoming industrialized, are largely rural, are heavily dependent on subsistence agriculture, and are mostly located in eastern or central Africa. Inequality between the rich and poor nations is marked and increasing.
Inequality within nations is measured by the Gini coefficient.
Modernization theory
Modernization theory is a market-oriented approach similar to the argument of the culture of poverty, which sees people as poor because they have poor work habits, engage in poor time management, are not willing to defer gratification, and do not save or take advantage of educational opportunities or have access to educational opportunities.
This theory sees economic development as a result of technological development that is necessarily dependent on other countries, by which traditional societies become more complex and differentiated.
To develop, however, countries must transcend the traditional stage, seen by proponents of this theory as characterized by fatalism and a lack of hard work, saving, efficiency, and enterprise.
The theory has been criticized for:
being value-laden, blaming countries for being poor.
not sufficiently taking into account the interplay and relationships between
countries that can affect a country’s economic or social condition.
Key Ideas of Modernization Theory:
The entire world was poor just two centuries ago.
The Industrial Revolution brought affluence to high income countries.
Industrialization can transform all poor societies.
Market-oriented theory supporting capitalism as a solution to poverty.
Characteristics of poor societies which cause their poverty:
Lack of industrial technology
Traditional culture
Rapid population growth
Traditional cultures
Attitudes and values stressing the past and the importance of tradition and religion
Fatalism: ideas and religions that emphasize that human suffering can only be changed in the afterlife
Immediate gratification or the inability to plan for the future
Irrationality or the rejection of science
Poor work ethic and poor work habits
Walt W. Rostow: Stages of Modernization
Traditional stage
Take-off stage
Drive to technological maturity
High mass consumption
Solutions to Global Poverty
Population-growth-control programs (family planning)
Foreign aid such as loans with interests to be paid
Private investments
Export oriented economies
Export processing zones
Free trade agreements
Family planning
The role of government is to attract and protect private investment
Capitalism and modern cultural traits
Dependency theory
Dependency theory, associated with the work of Fernando Henrique Cardoso and Andre Gunder Frank, holds that the poverty of the low-income countries directly results from political and economic dependence on wealthy countries. The dependency created by colonialism—a system by which western nations became wealthy by taking raw materials from colonized societies and reaping profits from products finished in the homeland—continues through neocolonialism of price controls, tariffs, and control of credit. The strategies of multinational corporations also disadvantage poor countries and advantage rich countries.
Critics of dependency theory point to: (1) a few poor countries that were never colonized and former colonies that have done well, and (2) the involvement of multinational corporations that do not always impoverish nations or increase their dependency.
Key Ideas of Dependency Theory
Colonialism has made some countries wealthy while keeping others in poverty.
In the world capitalist system, rich countries always grow richer and poor nations always become poorer.
Colonialism, capitalism and neocolonialism are the primary causes of global stratification.
Colonialism, capitalism and neocolonialism produce the development of underdevelopment.
Colonialism
The process by which some nations enrich themselves through military, political and economic control of other countries.
Neocolonialism
A new form of global power relations that involves not only direct political control but economic exploitation by multinational corporations.
Multinational Corporation: a large corporation that operates in many countries.
Capitalism is an economic system including:
Private property
Production for private profits
Market allocation of goods and services
Economic competition
Little governmental regulation of the economy
Social classes: capitalists and workers (social stratification)
Consequences of neocolonialism and capitalism in the Third World
Narrow export oriented economies
Lack of industrial capacity
Foreign debt
Lack of political capacity
Increase in social inequality
Hunger
Solutions
An independence revolution that eliminates colonialism and neocolonialism in each Third World country
Diversify economic production
Place local economic concerns first
Political and economic independence
Import substitution policies
Limit foreign investments
World systems theory
World Systems Theory, associated with the work of Immanuel Wallerstein, argues that the level of economic development is explained by each country’s role in the world economic system and uses the global stratification system which categorizes countries into the categories of core, semi-peripheral, and peripheral. World systems theorists now focus on an international division of labor to trace the commodity chains through which countries profit at different rates in the production of commodities.
Critics of world systems theory contend that the theory: (1) does not account for changes in the position of countries in the world system and (2) fails to account adequately for the benefit of commodity chains to peripheral countries.
This theory remains a powerful tool for understanding global inequality. World cities have emerged within this context of a world system and are closely linked through the system of international commerce. Additionally, transnational communities within world cities are linked through systems of international commerce.
Key Ideas of the World Systems Theory
Capitalism is today a single world economy.
The world capitalist economy benefits the core countries at the expense of the semi-periphery and periphery.
Colonialism, capitalism and neocolonialism are the primary causes of global stratification.
A World System is a set of societies that are linked together but are relatively autonomous from what lies outside the set. There are two types of world systems: world empires and world economies.
World Empires
A world empire is a set of societies tied together by a dominating state which extracts economic tribute from the others
Examples: Ancient Rome, Medieval China, Aztec Empire
World Economies
A World Economy has a multiplicity of political units tied together by warfare and by economic exchange.
Capitalism today is a world economy.
States (independent countries) compete against each other.
Some states are stronger that others politically and militarily
Core countries exploit semi-peripheral and peripheral societies.
Semi-peripheral societies exploit peripheral ones.
Core countries compete against each other. One could become hegemonic.
Core countries tend to become cumulative richer, enhancing their military power.
But states tend to rise and fall, sometimes getting ahead, and then losing out as the costs of their wars and domestic conflicts for control mount up.
Wallerstein’s Historical view of the Modern World System
Phase 1: 1450-1640: The take-off of capitalist economy and the rise and fall of the Spanish empire.
Phase 2: 1600s-1750: Netherlands became the hegemonic country challenged by France and England
Phase 3: 1750-1945: Rise and fall of the British hegemony
Phase 4: 1940s-1970s Rise and fall of the US hegemony
Phase 5: 1970s-Present: During the 21stcentury a new country or region may become hegemonic. (China; European Union?)
Phase 6: Capitalism may collapse and a world socialist government may be established.
Unequal trade and an international division of labor is what makes core countries cumulatively richer
An international division of labor may allow for some peripheral countries to develop within a capitalist economy.
Old International Division of Labor: Corecountries produced manufacturing goods and peripheral countries exported agricultural goods and raw materials
New International Division of Labor: Corecountries specialize in management and research; semi-peripheral countries produce manufacturing goods from industries that are labor intensive and the periphery exports raw materials and agricultural goods.
Commodity Chain: A network of production with different profits at different stages. Following the chain can identify which countries are getting wealthier and which are not.
Capitalism, colonialism and neocolonialism are the primary causes of global stratification and world hunger.
Solutions to Global Poverty
Forgive foreign debt
Diversify economic production
Strong peripheral governments that place local economic concerns first
World socialist government
Democratization and cultural pluralism
Socialism
Production for the common good and not only for private profits
Government regulates the economy in order to limit social stratification
Government’s role is that of redistribution of wealth
Read more about the World Systems Theory
Immanuel Wallerstein
The World Systems Theory
The World Systems Theory II
Immanuel Wallerstein
The Contemporary Relevance of Marx- Wallerstein
The consequences of global stratification:
Population
The poorest countries have the highest birth rates and the highest death rates.
The richest countries have only 15 percent of the world’s population, and many of these countries are experiencing population declines.
Scholars are divided on their understanding of the relationship between the rate of population growth and economic development.
Some believe that large population and high birth rates can impede economic development.
Others point out that some countries with very large populations have become developed leading to the conclusion that industrialization lowers fertility rates rather than large populations inhibiting development.
Health and the Environment
Significant differences are evident in the basic health standards of countries,
depending on where they are in the global stratification system.
High-income countries (15% of the world’s population) have lower childhood death rates, higher life expectancy, and fewer children born underweight; people also have access to clean water and adequate sanitation.
In poor countries, childhood death rates are high, life expectancy is considerably shorter, and fewer people have access to clean water and adequate sanitation.
Degradation of the environment affects all nations; deforestation is most severe in South America, Africa, Mexico and Southeast Asia, whereas overproduction of “greenhouse gas” is most severe in the U.S., Canada, Australia, parts of western Europe and Russia where energy use per capita is highest. Combined together they use more than half of the world’s energy.
Education and Illiteracy
In the richest nations, education and literacy is almost universal. In middle and lower income nations, elementary school enrollment is low, as are literacy rates. In these countries, informal and traditional education in family and religious settings is common; this kind of education does not always provide the skills and knowledge needed to operate in the modern world.
Gender Inequality
The position of a country in the world stratification system also affects gender
relations within different countries.
Poverty is usually felt more by women than by men across the globe.
The United Nations, an international organization, carefully monitors the status of women globally using the gender inequality index. Their reports indicate mixed news with regards to women’s status around the world: poverty levels have improved in some levels but not in others. Equity in levels of primary education has evened out, but huge gaps appear in secondary and higher education.
Violence against women—which takes many forms—is pervasive world-wide.
War and Terrorism
By generating inequities in the distribution of power, global stratification results in international conflicts bring war and increased risk of terrorism.
Terrorism – premeditated, politically motivated violence perpetrated against noncombatant targets by persons or groups who use their action to try to achieve their political ends. Global inequalities and the dominance of Western culture and Western nations over others contribute to the roots of terror.
Inequality is also connected to the context in which terrorism emerges suggesting that improving the lives of those who now feel collectively humiliated could provide some protection against terrorism.
Videos:
The post What is global stratification? In a system of global stratification, the units appeared first on PapersSpot.
