THEORIES OF GLOBAL STRATIFICATION

"MODERNIZATION THEORY"

-One of the 2 main explanations for global stratification is the modernization

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.

2 Historical Events:

a. Columbian Exchange

-This refers to the spread of goods, technology, education and diseases between
the Americas and Europe after Christopher Columbus’s so-called “discovery of the
Americans”.

b. Industrial Revolution in the 18th and 19th Centuries

-This is when new technologies, like stream power and mechanization, allowed
countries to replace human labor with machines and increase productivity.

Modernization Theory rests on the idea that affluence could be attained by

anyone.

Modernization Theory argues that the tension between tradition and

technological change is the biggest barrier to growth. A society that is more steeped in
family systems and traditions may be less willing to adopt new technologies and the
new social systems that often accompany them.

The Protestant Reformation primed Europe to take on a progress-oriented way of

life in which financial success was a sign of personal virtue. Individualism replaced
communalism. This is the perfect breeding ground for modernization.

"WALT ROSTOW'S FOUR STAGES OF MODERNIZATION"

According to American economist, Walt Rostow, modernization in the west took

place, as it always tends to four stages:

1. Traditional stage - refers to socities that our structured around small, local
communities with production typically being done in family settings.
2. Take -off stage - people beggin to use the individual talents to produce things
beyond the necessities.

3. High mass consumption - it is when your country is big enough that production
becomes more about wants than needs.

4. Technology Maturity - in which technological growth of the earlier period begging to

bear fruit in the form of population growth reductions in absulote poverty levels and
more diverse job opportunities.

Modernization theory , in generals argue that if you invest capital in better

technologies, they will eventually raise production enough that there will be more wealth
to go around and overall will being will go up.

Critics of modernization theory - argue that, in many ways, it is just a new

name for the idea that capitalism is the only way for a country to develop.Countries like
United States and the United Kingdom industrialize from the position of global strength
during a period when there will no laws against slavery or concerns about natural
resource depletion.

"DEPENDENCY THEORY AND THE LATIN AMERICAN EXPERIENCE"

1500s -European explorers spread throughout the America,Africa,and Asia,claiming

lands for Europe.

-The United states,which began as colonies, soon sprawled out through the north
America and took control of Haiti,Puerto Rico,Guam,the Philippines,the Hawiian Islands,
and parts of Panama and Cuba.

1870 -only ten percent of Africa was colonized.

1940 -only Ethiopia and Liberia were not colonized.

1997 -Hongkong was finally granted independence.

After the second world war ,there are many questions about International
relations.One of those questions was "Why are many countries in the world not
developing?" The traditional answer was because these country are not pursuing the
right economic policies or their governments are authoritarian and corrupt.Latin
American scholars ,however are critical of that answer and are intrigued by their
region's underdevelopment.
 According to Cardoso and Felato,dependency is the condition in which the
condition of the nation-states of the South contributed to a decline in their independence
and to an increase in economic development of the countries of the North. In addition, it
argues that liberal trade causes greater improverishment,not economic improvement to
less developd countries (Toye,2003).

Dependency theory was initially developed by Hans Singer and Raul Prebisch in
the 1990's and has been improved since then.The two sub main theories are the North
American Neo- Marxist approach and the Latin American structuralist approach
(Sanchez,2014).

Core nations and Peripheral nations

-Core countries are more industrialized nations whoreceived the majority of the world's
wealth.

-Peripheral nations are countries that are less developed and receive unequal
distribution of the world's wealth.

Accordingly, less developed periphery countries are said to primarily serve the
interests of the wealthier countries and end up having a little to no resources to put
toward on their own development.Periphery nations end up spending more money on
the processed food.Their small economies may also rely on core nations for medical
and nutritional aid.

Andre Gunder Frank contented the idea that less develop countries would
develop by following the the path taken by the developed countries.

As a result of the influence of structuralist thought ,most Latin American

countries adopted strategies nominally conducive to autonomous, self sustaining
development.

The idea of dependence refers to the conditions under which alone the
economic and political system can exist and function in it's connections with the world
productive structure.ln other words the very use of the term "dependency" was used to
underscore the extent to which the economic and political development of poor
countries was conditioned by the global economy,whose center of gravity was located in
the developed countries.

The identification of interest networks-business,technocrats,the military,the

middle class-that bind the dynamics of local and political and economic processes to
material and political interests in the industrialized world".This version saw development
as historically open ended and allowed for the possibility that the nature of dependent
relation could change anytime.