Periphery countries
This article needs to be updated. The reason given is: Sources are from the late 20th century and early 21st century. These sources need to be updated.(September 2023) |
In
Background
Periphery countries are those that exist on the outer edges of global trade.[citation needed] There could be many reasons for a country to be considered peripheral, such as a dysfunctional or inefficient government.[citation needed] For example, some nations' customs and ports are so inefficient that even though they are geographically closer it is cheaper to ship goods from longer distances.[3] Other reasons such as wars, non-central location, insufficient infrastructure (rail lines, roads and communications) will keep a country in the periphery of global trade.[citation needed] Generally the populations tend to be poor and destitute so the core countries will exploit them for cheap labor and will even purposely interfere with their politics to keep things this way.[citation needed] Usually a peripheral country will specialize in one particular industry, leaving it vulnerable to economic instability and limiting international investment.[citation needed] Sometimes countries decide to isolate themselves, such as 14th century China.[4]
Formation
There are a variety of reasons that periphery countries remain the way they are. One important factor that keeps countries in the periphery is the lack of development of
Although periphery nations are exploited by core countries, there is a purpose to the unequal exchanges of goods. For instance, the core countries have an incentive to gain a
History
15th century and 16th century
The world-system of the 15th and 16th centuries was very different from the world-system of today. Several areas were beginning to develop into trading powers but none were able to gain total control. For this reason, a core and periphery developed in each region as opposed to a global scale. Cities began to become the "core" with the more agricultural countryside becoming a sort of "periphery". The most underdeveloped region that was still involved in trade at the time was Europe. It had the weakest core and periphery areas.[2]
Two examples of periphery countries in the late 15th century and early 16th century are
Interactions
The relationship that the periphery countries have with the core countries is one that is defined by the exploitation of the periphery countries by the core countries. As many countries began to
For the core countries to remain at the core, it is necessary that the periphery countries keep producing these cheap goods and remain mostly
Imperialism's effect on core-periphery interactions
The current relationship between core countries and periphery countries was mostly defined in the era of imperialism that occurred in the late 19th through the early 20th centuries. It was at this time that the countries with the strongest economies and military forces began to exploit those countries with weaker states.[9] A result of this exploitation was the tendency of underdeveloped states or colonies to move more towards the production of one type of export that would then come to dominate their land, territory and lifestyle economy. Some examples of the time include Brazil's coffee production and Cuba's cigar production.[9]
Economic possibilities
Periphery countries are continuously exploited by countries due to the exportation of surpluses of raw goods to the more technologically industrialized core countries for manufacturing and distribution.[10] Recently some of the manufacturing has been moved to periphery countries but it is still controlled and owned by the core countries. There are, however, ways in which periphery countries can rise from their poor status and become semi-periphery countries or even core countries. It is crucial for the core countries to keep exploiting the natural resources of the periphery countries and to keep the governments semi-stable or else it could cause economic unrest for the core countries as a whole.[11]
Ways to improve
There are several ways in which periphery countries are able to escape their poor status. Some of these ways are stabilizing their governments, becoming more industrialized and using
Stabilized government
One main way in which a periphery country can rise to
Some
Industrializing
Most periphery countries rely almost entirely on agriculture and other natural resources such as oil, coal, and diamonds in order to gain some sort of profit, but this also keeps them from growing economically. In order for them to grow they must industrialize in order to produce finished goods for exportation around the world, instead of allowing the core countries to profit from their natural resources. Industrializing and adapting newer technology is one of the major ways in which periphery countries can begin to raise their standard of living and help increase the wealth of their citizens.[10] Becoming industrialized also will help to force trade to come to their cities, if they can produce goods at competitive prices, allowing them to reach out to the global market and take hold.[10] Once a periphery country can industrialize, and use its own resources to its own benefit, it will begin to enter semi-periphery status.
In order for a periphery country to industrialize, it must first undergo proto-industrialization.[13] In this stage, a market-based economy begins to form, normally in rural areas, using agricultural products. Proto-industrialization also helps to organize the rural market in these country and allows for them to become more capitalistic. Finally, once these countries develop this style of economy, they can begin to build factories and machines.[13]
Education
One of the final steps for a periphery country to rise to semi-periphery or core status is to educate its citizens.
Once the people in these countries have become educated enough and they realize their place in the world economy, they can also demand help from the core countries. Although unlikely, due to the fact that the core countries rely on the exploitation of the periphery, there have been pushes for core countries to help better the periphery countries. Some of the ideas suggested are to help aid the periphery countries in developing by exploiting them less, help the periphery countries lose some of their debt and raise the prices on goods coming from these countries to allow them to be more profitable.[12] These policies are obviously not beneficial to the core countries and is mostly why they have never been adapted successfully but this is another way in which the periphery could rise to a higher status.[12]
Examples
Russia
During the early 20th century the economy of the Russian Empire was a primarily agrarian country with isolated pockets of heavy industries. The Empire fell in 1917; the core of its industrial workers shrank from 3.6 million in 1917 to 1.5 million in 1920.[15] After the end of the Russian Civil War the Soviet Union industrialized under the rule of Joseph Stalin. Industrialization peaked in 1929–1932 in a rapid campaign described as "a revolution from above".[16] Former personal private farms were collectivized in the early 1930s and gradually supplied with tractors and other machinery. Mechanization of farm labor, among other factors, contributed to freeing up workers for the newly built factories. In 1928-1932 alone at least ten million peasants migrated to the cities, causing "an unprecedented demographic upheaval".[15] Industrialization allowed the country to trade in the global trade market. By the 1950s and 60s, only about 30 years after it began to industrialize, the Soviet Union was considered by most scholars a core country along with the United States.
Adaptation
Once a periphery country rises up to
Current periphery
List of current periphery countries
Periphery countries as listed in the appendix of "Trade Globalization since 1795: waves of integration in the world-system" that appeared in the American Sociological Review (Dunn, Kawana, Brewer (2000)).[18]
And this is the periphery listing according to Babones (2005), who notes that this list is composed of countries that "have been consistently classified into a single one of the three zones [core, semi-periphery or periphery] of the world economy over the entire 28-year study period".[19]
See also
- Core-periphery
- Developing country
- Third World
References
- ^ Escudé, Carlos; Schenoni, Luis L. "Peripheral Realism Revisited". Revista Brasileira de Política Internacional. 59 (1): 1–18.
- ^ a b c d e Thomas Shannon. An Introduction to the World-System Perspective. 1996.
- ^ Dollar, David, "Globalization, Inequality, and Poverty since 1980" Development Research Group, World Bank. November 2001, Page 21.
- ^ Abu-Lughod, Janet L., "Before European Hegemony" Oxford University Press, 1989.
- ^ a b c d e Immanuel Wallerstein. The Modern World System : Capitalist Agriculture and the Origins of the European World-Economy in the Sixteenth Century. Academic press. 1976.http://marriottschool.byu.edu/emp/WPW/Class%209%20-%20The%20World%20System%20Perspective.pdf.
- ^ Raul Prebischb. Commercial Policy in the Underdeveloped Countries. American Economic Association. 1959.https://www.jstor.org/stable/1816120.
- ^ Immanuel Wallerstein. Dependence in an Interdependent World: The Limited Possibilities of Transformation within the Capitalist World Economy. African Studies Association. April 1974.https://www.jstor.org/stable/523574.
- ISBN 978-0-8476-9104-3.
- ^ ISBN 978-0679721758.
- ^ a b c Martinez-Vela. World Systems Theory Archived 2009-03-06 at the Wayback Machine. ESD-83. Fall 20001.
- ^ a b c d e f g Anderson, Taylor. Sociology, the essentials. Cengage Learning. February 2006. Sociology, the essentials
- ^ a b c d Duncan, Webster, Switky. World Politics in the 21st Century. page 416. Longman.
- ^ a b John Hicks. A Theory of Economic History. page 141. Cambridge University Press.
- ^ a b c d Arnove. Comparative Education Systems. page 48. Comparative and International Education Society. 1980.
- ^ ISBN 0-19-923767-0. p. 141
- ISBN 0-19-923767-0. p. 121
- ^ Beaglehole, Yach. Globalisation and the prevention and control of non-communicable disease: the neglected chronic disease of adults. Elsevier Ltd. 13 September 2003.
- ^ Dunn, Kawana, Brewer, Trade Globalization since 1795, American Sociological Review, 2000 February, Vol. 65 article, Appendix with the country list
- ^ Salvatore J. Babones. 2005. The Country-Level Income Structure of the World-Economy. Journal of World-Systems Research 11:29-55.