Global Formation:
Structures of the World-Economy
Dedicated to my daughters
Cori, Mae and Frances
Second Edition published by Rowman and Littlefield, 1998.
Thrift Store,
ABSTRACT
This book develops a structural approach to the study of the modern world-system. The stress is on systemic patterns and deep structural logic rather than on conjunctural situations or particular areas or periods.
A new introduction to the second edition discusses recent world events (such
as the demise of the
My approach differs from the work of most other scholars utilizing the
world-systems perspective in several ways. I believe that concept formation and
theory construction are essential pieces of the effort to build a cumulative
social science. This commitment to theory has led me to utilize the
interpretive works of other world-system scholars to formulate theoretical
models with empirical implications, and to explicitly confront the conceptual
problems raised by critics of the world-system perspective. Also, I have a
fondness for quantitative empirical analysis as a method for testing
theoretical propositions, although this does not prevent me from asking
questions which are difficult to quantify. This predilection has urged me to
review the growing corpus of comparative research which is relevant to our
understanding of world-system processes, and to approach the problems of theory
construction and concept formation with an eye to matters of operationalization
and proposition testing.
Part I outlines the main structures of the world-economy. Major theoretical debates about world-systems and modes of production are addressed, and a new formulation is proposed. Then I describe a set of processes which are hypothesized to operate at the level of the world-system as a whole. Various approaches to the periodization of the development of the modern world-system are compared, and recent developments since World War II are examined from the perspective long run systemic cycles and trends. Finally I discuss world culture and the role of normative integration and cultural domination in the reproduction of the global system.
Part II examines the relationships between states and the capitalist world-economy. Issues raised in the current literature on the political economy of capitalist states are considered, and explanations of differences in state strength and regime form between core and peripheral states are formulated. The multicentric interstate system of unequally powerful and competing states is conceived as the main political structure behind the reproduction of capitalist relations of production. Geopolitics, warfare, and commodity production are interdependent forms of competition which reproduce one another. Chapter 9 formulates an explanation for the hegemonic cycle--the rise and decline of hegemonic core powers--and reviews related research.
Part III focuses on the nature of the core/periphery hierarchy in the modern world-system. The analytic definition of core production is specified as relatively capital intensive commodity production, and contending conceptualizations are discussed. The definitions of semiperipheral areas are considered, and the notion of discrete boundaries between core, peripheral and semiperipheral zones is critiqued. Various mechanisms which are alleged to reproduce the core/periphery hierarchy are described and the crossnational research which examines the effects of these mechanisms on national development is reviewed. The question of the necessity of the core/periphery hierarchy for capitalism is confronted. Studies of recent changes in the structural characteristics of core and peripheral countries are summarized, and the questions of absolute immiseration of the periphery and the growing gap between core and periphery are examined empirically. Chapter 13 proposes a causal model of the relationship between certain world-system cycles and reorganizations of the core/periphery hierarchy, and reviews research which is relevant to these models.
Part IV considers problems of metatheoretical stance and methodological
approach in the study of world-systems. I locate my own historical/structural
theorizing further toward the nomothetic end of the idiographic/nomothetic
continuum relative to the position of the
My position on method contends that the faults of mainstream American social science are mainly problems of theoretical substance rather than research methods. While I abhor raw empiricism as much as the next fellow, I see the comparative and quantitative methods developed by modern social science as important tools for studying world-systems and for evaluating world-system theories.
The last chapter discusses the implications of the theoretical conclusions reached and the gaps in existing empirical research. Though the theorization is incomplete, and much more empirical work needs to be done, I permit myself to comment on possible implications of the world-system perspective for policy and political action. This is justified by the grave implications of some of the findings, especially the apparent tendency of the capitalist world-economy to regularly produce wars among core states, a systemic feature which, in combination with the proliferation of nuclear arsenals, portends world-wide tragedy.
Table of Contents
Page
Preface
Introduction to the Updated Edition
Introduction
Part I The Whole System
1 The Deep Structure: Real Capitalism
2 Constants, Cycles and Trends
3 Stages of Capitalism or WorldSystem Cycles?
4 The World-System Since 1945: What Has Changed?
5 World Culture, Normative Integration and Community
Part II States and the Interstate System
6 States and Capitalism
7 Geopolitics and Capitalism: One Logic or Two?
8 Warfare and WorldSystems
9 Rise and Decline of Hegemonic Core States
Part III Zones of the WorldSystem
10 Core and Periphery
11 Reproduction of the Core/Periphery Hierarchy
12 Recent Trends
13 Cycles and the Core/Periphery Relationship
Part IV Metatheory and Research Methods
14 Theory Construction
15 Research Methods
Part V Implications
Glossary
Notes
References