THEORIES OF GLOBAL

STRATIFICATION
MIDTERM LECTURE
 There are patterns of global stratification with inequalities in
wealth and power between societies. Explaining why there are
countries who developed faster that the others can be done
through different theories. There are two theories which can
explain the existing global stratification. These are:

 1.Modernization Theory
 2.Dependency 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.
 1.COLUMBIANEXCHANGE
 2.INDUSTRIALREVOLUTION
 It refers to the spread of goods, technology, education and diseases
between the Americas and Europe after Christopher Columbus’ so-
called “discovery of Americas”.
 This exchange worked out so well for the European countries and these
countries gained agricultural staples, like potatoes and tomatoes, which
contributed to population growth and provided new opportunities for
trade, while strengthening the power of the merchant class.
 It worked out much less well for Native Americans whose population
were ravaged by diseases brought from Europe wherein 150 yrs
following the discovery, over 80% of Native Americans died because of
the diseases such as smallpox and measles.
 It happened during the 18th and 19th Centuries.
 This is when new technologies like steam power and
mechanization , allowed countries to replace human labor with
machines and increase productivity. This revolution at first only
benefited the wealthy inWestern countries
 As a result, countries that industrialized in the 18th and 19th
centuries saw massive improvements in their standards of living
and countries that did not industrialize left behind.
 Modernization theory argues that the tension between the
tradition and technological change is the biggest barrier to
growth. A society that is more stick in family systems and
traditions may be less willing to adopt new technologies and the
new social systems that often accompany them.
 This theory therefore sees that most of the countries who are less developed
are more steeped to their culture and traditions and therefore not willing to
adopt new technologies that is why they were left behind.
 According to American economist,Walt Rostow,modernization in theWest
took place in four stages. These are:
 1.Traditional stage
 2.Take-off stage
 3.Drive to technological maturity stage
 4 . High mass consumption
 This refers to the 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 strong political hierarchy.
 Examples are feudal Europe or early Chinese dynasties.
 Traditional rules how a society functions. What your parents do
is what your parents did.
 People begin to use their individual talents to produce things beyond the
necessities.
 Innovation creates new market for trade, therefore productions is no longer
associated with traditional rules.
 Technological growth of the earlier periods begin to bear fruit in the form of
population growth, reductions in absolute poverty levels and more diverse to
job opportunities .
 Nations in this stage typically begin to push for social change, along with
economic change, like implementing basic schooling for everyone and
developing more democratic political system.
 Last stage of Modernization.
 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.
 Critics argue that Modernization theory is just a new name for the idea that capitalism is the only
way for a country to develop. Even as technology has improved throughout the world,a lot of
countries have been left behind.
 This theory sweeps a lot of historical factors under the rug.Countries like US and UK industrialized
from a position of global strength during a period when there were no laws against slavery or
concern about natural resource depletion. Meaning they were already powerful even before they
were industrialized.
 This theory is Eurocentric, putting an emphasis on economic progress,even though that is not
necessarily the only standard to aspire by every nation. Economic progress often includes
downsides, like the environmental damage done by industrialization and the exploitation of cheap or
free labor.
 Also, critics of this theory see this as blaming the victim. This 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 to those countries.
 Starting 1500s, European explorers spread throughout Americas, Africa and
Asia claiming lands for Europe. British empire covered about one fourth of
the world. US took control of Haiti, Puerto Rico, Guam, the Philippines, the
Hawailan Islands, and parts of Panama and Cuba.
 There was a transatlantic slave trade followed a triangular route between
Africa, American and Caribbean colonies and European. Guns and factory-
made goods were sent to Africa in exchange for slaves who were sent to
colonies to produce goods like cotton and tobacco.
 However, as the slave trade died down in 19th centuries, the point of
colonialism came to be less about human resources and more about natural
resources. They begin exploiting natural resources of their colonies.
 This theory was a product of this experience of colonization. Dependency refers
to the condition in which the development of the nation-states of the South
(underdeveloped) contributed to a decline in their independence ana to an
increase in economic development of the countries of the North (developed).
 This theory also argues that liberal trade causes greater impoverishment, not
economic improvement , to less developed countries. It focuses on how poor
countries have been wronged by richer nations.
 It also argues that in a world of finite resources, rich nations are rich since those
riches came at the expense of another country being poor. (It means that rich
countries become richer by means of exploiting poor countries through
COLONIALISM.)
 Espoused by Andre Gunder Frank. He contended the idea that the
less developed would develop by following the path taken by the
developed countries. Developed were undeveloped in the beginning
but not under developed . This means that the path taken by the
developed countries does not guarantee the same fate for the
underdeveloped countries.
 Frank also rejected the idea that internal sources cause a country’s
underdevelopment; rather, it is their dependency to capitalist system
that causes lack of development.
 Developed mainly by Latin American scientists.
 Studies by Hans Singer documented a secular deterioration in terms of trade of
Latin American countries. Less developed states deteriorated by means of
depending on the imports from other countries.Whereas, Presbich can be credited
for explaining the factors underlying this downward trend.
 Most of Latin American countries adopted strategies nominally conducive to
autonomous, self-sustaining development. They sought to diversify exports and
accelerate industrialization through import substitution. High tariffs were
imposed to reduce the region’s dependence on foreign manufactures and on the
developed North.
 The 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. Low-income countries, on the other hand, refer to “periphery” whose
natural resources and labor support the wealthier countries for 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 global economic core.
 In Wallerstein’s model, the periphery remains economically dependent on the core in a number of ways.
Poor countries tend to have few resources to export to rich countries. Corporations can buy these raw
materials cheaply and the will process and sell them in richer nations. As a result, the profit tends to
bypass the poor countries who provided raw materials in a cheap price.
 The problem under this theory is not that there is a lack of global wealth ; it is that this is not well
distributed.