Irows WORKING PAPER #46
https://irows.ucr.edu/papers/irows46/irows46.htm
“The Divergence of Economic and Coercive Power
in the World Economy 1960
to 2000:
A Measure of Nation-State Position”
Jeffrey Kentor
jeffrey.kentor@soc.utah.edu
This measure of position in the world-economy is an extension of my earlier work on this topic (Kentor 2000), and is based upon Charles Tilly’s (1994) theorization of the emergence of the modern nation-state system. Tilly argues that the current inter-state system is the result of a merging of coercive and economic power between A.D. 1000 and 1800. Prior to this time, economic and coercive, or military, power were separate. Political units, such as states, feudal areas and empires, were essentially containers of coercive power, used to acquire the necessary goods, and people, to maintain their systems. Economic power resided within cities, the centers of economic activities in these times, and where capital was accumulated by the emerging burgher class. As military technology progressed and warfare became more expensive, these political organizations were forced to look to cities for the financing of their military activities. The resulting relationship between state and city, of coercive and economic power, solidified over this 800 year period, giving rise to the modern nation-states of today. These modern nation-states controlled both military and economic power.
Following Tilly’s conceptualization, this measure of position in the world economy uses indicators of both economic and coercive (military) power to determine a country’s position in the global hierarchy from 1980 to 2000. Two aspects of economic power are included. The first is a country’s productive capacity, as indicated by total Gross Domestic Product. The second is the capital-intensive quality of the economy, as measured by per capita Gross National Product. These data are taken from the World Bank (2002). Coercive power is measured in terms of total military expenditures. These data are taken from Singer and Small (1994) and various years of the SIPRI Yearbook. For a detailed discussion of these measures, see Kentor (2000).
The actual scale is a simple additive measure, and is calculated as follows. The values for each variable are transformed into standard (Z) scores. The three values are then summed to obtain an overall measure of position. These values are given in the accompanying three tables for 2000, 1990, and 1980. Individual values for each indicator are also provided. An Excel version of the tables below is at https://irows.ucr.edu/papers/irows46/w-spos.xls
References
Kentor, Jeffrey. 2000. Kentor, Jeffrey. Capital and Coercion: The Role of Economic and Military Power in the
World-Economy 1800-1990. New York: Routledge.
Singer, J. David and Melvin Small. 1994. Correlates of War Project. ICPSR Data File. Ann Arbor: ICPSR.
SIPRI. Various Years. SIPRI Yearbook. Oxford: Oxford University Press.
Tilly, Charles. 1994. “Entanglements of European Cities and States.” In, Cities and the Rise of States in Europe AD
1000 to 1800, Edited by Charles Tilly and Wim Blockmans. Boulder: Westview
Press.
World Bank. 2002. World Development Indicators. Washington, D.C: World Bank.
This measure used to categorize countries into world-system zones for 2000:
World Bank classification[1] World-system position[2]
Global “North:
High income
Austria Core
Belgium Core
Canada Core
Denmark Core
Finland Core
France Core
Germany Core
Greece Semiperiphery
Hong Kong (China) Semiperiphery
Ireland Core
Israel Semiperiphery
Italy Core
Japan Core
Global “South”:
Upper-middle income
Costa Rica Semiperiphery
Lebanon Periphery
Lower-middle income
Bolivia Periphery
Brazil Semiperiphery
Colombia Semiperiphery
Low income