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A.Y. 2022-2023, First Semester

THE CONTEMPORARY WORLD

(GE3)
 MODULE
4 The Theories of Global Stratification

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MODULE 4: The Theories of Global Stratification

LEARNING OUTCOMES

1. Define the modern world system; and

2. Articulate a stance on global economic integration.

Theories of Global Stratification

For much of human history, all of the societies on earth were poor. Poverty was the
norm for everyone but obviously, that is not the case anymore. Just as you find stratification
among socioeconomic classes within a society like the Philippines, you would also see
across the world a pattern of global stratification with inequalities in wealth and power
between societies. So what made some parts of the world develop faster, economically
speaking, than others? We may draw answers by looking at the different theories of global
stratification.

Modernization Theory
One of the two main explanations for global stratification is the modernization theory.
This theory frames global stratification as a function of technological and cultural differences
between nations. It specifically pinpoints two historical events that contributed to Western
Europe developing at a faster rate than much of the rest of the world. The first event is
known as the Columbian Exchange. This refers to the spread of goods, technology,
education, and diseases between the Americas and Europe after Christopher Columbus's
so-called “discovery of the Americas.” This exchange worked out well for the European
countries. They gained agricultural staples, like potatoes and tomatoes, which contributed to
population growth and provided new opportunities for trade while also strengthening the
power of the merchant class. The Columbian Exchange worked out much less well,
however, for Native Americans whose populations were ravaged by the diseases brought
from Europe. It is estimated that in the 150 years following Columbus’s first trip, over 80% of
the Native American population died due to diseases such as smallpox and measles.
The second historical event is the Industrial Revolution in the eighteenth and
nineteenth centuries. This is when new technologies, like steam power and mechanization,
allowed countries to replace human labor with machines and increase productivity. The
Industrial Revolution, at first, only benefited the wealthy in Western countries. Industrial
technology was very productive that it gradually began to improve standards of living for
everyone. Countries that industrialized in the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries saw
massive improvements in their standards of living and countries that did not industrialize lag
behind.

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 Modernization theory rests on the idea that affluence could be attained by anyone.
But why did the Industrial Revolution not take hold everywhere? Modernization theory
argues that the tension between tradition and technological change is the biggest barrier to
growth. A society that is more. steeped in family systems and traditions may be less willing
to adopt new technologies and the new social systems that often accompany them.

Walt Rostow’s Four Stages of Modernization

According to American economist Walt Rostow, modernization in the West took

place, as it always tends to, in four stages. First is the traditional stage. This refers to
societies that are structured around small, local communities with production typically being
done in family settings. Because these societies have limited resources and technology,
most of their time is spent on laboring to produce food, which creates a strict social
hierarchy. Examples of these are feudal Europe or early Chinese dynasties. Tradition rules
how a society functions: what your parents do is what their parents did, and what you will do
when you grow up, too. But as people begin to move beyond doing what has always been
done, society moves to Rostow’s second stage—the take-offstage. People begin to use
their individual talents to produce things beyond the necessities. This innovation creates
new markets for trade. In turn, greater individualism takes hold and social status is more
closely linked with material wealth.
Next, nations begin what Rostoyv called the drive to technological maturity, in
which technological growth of the earlier periods begins to bear fruit in the form of
population growth, reductions in absolute poverty levels, and more diverse job opportunities.
Nations in this phase typically begin to push for social change along with economic change,
like implementing basic schooling for everyone and developing more democratic political
systems. The last stage is known as high mass consumption. It is when your country is
big enough that production becomes more about wants than needs. Many of these countries
put social support systems in place to ensure that all of their citizens have access to basic
necessities.
Modernization theory, in general, argues that if you invest capital in better
technologies, they will eventually raise production enough that there will be more wealth to
go around and overall well-being will go up. Furthermore, rich countries can help other
countries that are still growing by exporting their technologies and things, like agriculture
machinery, information technology, as well as providing foreign aid.

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The Modern World-System
This history of colonialism inspired American sociologist Immanuel Wallerstein model
of what he called the capitalist world economy. Wallerstein described high-income nations
as the “core” of the world economy. This core is the manufacturing base of the planet where
resources funnel in to become the technology and wealth enjoyed by the Western world
today. Low-income countries, meanwhile, are Wallerstein called the “periphery,” whose
natural resources and labor support the wealthier countries, first as colonies and now by
working for multinational corporations under neocolonialism. Middle-income countries, such
as India or Brazil, are considered the semi-periphery due to their closer ties to the global
economic core.
In Wallerstein’s model, the periphery remains economically dependent on the core in
a number of ways, which tend to reinforce each other. First, poor nations tend to have few
resources to export to rich countries. However, corporations can buy these raw materials
cheaply and then process and sell them in richer nations. As a result, the profits tend to
bypass the poor countries. Poor countries are also more likely to lack industrial capacity, so
they have to import expensive manufactured goods from richer nations. All of these unequal
trade patterns lead to poor nations owing lots of money to richer nations and creating debt
that makes it hard to invest in their own development. In sum, under dependency theory, the
problem is not that there is a lack of global wealth; it is that we do not distribute it well.
Just as modernization theory 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 other countries, improving all nations’ well-being and not just the rich. Also, colonialism
certainly left scars, but it is not enough, on its own, to explain today’s economic disparities.
Some of the poorest countries in Africa, like Ethiopia, were never colonized and had very
little contact with richer nations. Likewise, some former colonies, like Singapore and Sri
Lanka, now have flourishing economies. In direct contrast to what dependency theory
predicts, most evidence suggests that, nowadays, foreign investment by richer nations helps
and do not hurt poorer countries.

REFERENCE:
Aldama, P. (2018). The contemporary world. Manila, Philippines: Rex Book Store.
Photos: Freepik

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