World-System Theory and Dependency Theory

The world-system theory has been created and developed by Immanuel Wallerstein, stating that the under-development of southern countries (countries of the south) is due to their role and hierarchical place in the international economical order. The international, global economy is now characterized by the core (being at the center), the periphery and the semiperiphery.

This world-system is also presented as the dependency theory, since it presents the fact that northern countries developed a historical and economical process making the southern countries dependant of them. Immanuel Wallerstein stated that rich and powerful countries need poor and undeveloped countries in order to assure their development and economical growth. It can also be defined as “any historical social system of interdependent parts that form a bounded structure and operate according to distinct rules”. In other words, a world-system is a unit composed of multiple and different systems dependent from each others. Nowadays world-system is a world-economy. Economy is the strongest and more powerful linkages between the different components of today system. Today world-system is a “capitalist world-economy” because the world market, global market is in the center of the power.

The world-system theory presents globalization as one common and global market containing various nations and different cultures. There is however a labor hierarchy of the world-system. In fact, there are the core states constituting the powerful and rich countries. They are concentrating high educated people, high developed skills, important production and capital, and also strong and powerful army and military armies, like the case of the United States and Japan, being the two of the stronger core states because of their important national economy spread worldwide. They are very developed and industrialized countries. It controls and leads productivity, and they own the surplus of the entire world-economy.

Then, there are the peripheral areas, concentrating fragile states, “low skill and labor-intensive production” states, but also weak army countries. Peripheral areas are very dependent on the core, contrary to semiperipheral areas, being stronger states and much more diversified in their economy. The peripheral countries are illustrated by countries that have been colonized and controlled by other states. Those countries, being independent recently still cannot be totally independent and still need the support of other countries, the core area states. The system is structured in a way that the entire system is completely linked.

However, following the dependency theory, rich and developed countries need smaller and poor countries in order to increase their development, and at the same time, poor and weak countries need rich and powerful countries to follow them in order for them (poor, non developed countries) to develop their economical standing. So, if those poor countries make into practice the concept of leapfrogging, then the poor countries would develop more rapidly, and at the end, in a decade, won’t need the rich countries to improve economically.