Session 16- King Capitalism

Immanuel Wallerstein in this week’s reading, takes us through the course of history to describe how the world system and capitalism from evolving through centuries, now have a strong footing in the international system presently. In almost every course that we study, in the discipline of Political Science, Wallerstein’s World Systems Theory is not only redundant, but it is imperative in understanding how the countries work and how they are placed in the world today. This theory shows the pragmatic application of Capitalism as a leading ideology presently that dictates the functioning of the world.

The World Systems Theory divides the labor/states into three distinct categories. You have your cores that dominate the scenario due to their level of development and their effects on the production, output and levels of consumption. The cores have no apparent direct challenge and are the strong nations who have firmly held their place in the international system. The cores are followed by the periphery, the group of countries that are exploited by the core. The under developed nations of the world can be grouped under this umbrella and they are countries who we can say work and provide the core with primary materials to keep it happy. An analogy can be drawn between the Karl Marx class structure theory, whereby the core can be assumed to be the Proletariat force exploiting the periphery i.e. the Bourgeoisie. A group of countries further, form the semi periphery, which in other words can be called the developing nations. Semi periphery nations are classified under BRICS (Brazil, Russia, India, China and South Africa) who are upcoming nations. This classification of the world into three groups though seems very crude, but in reality this division exists quite prominently.

Wallerstein furthermore describes or what looks like he complains that there is no Socialist order in the world presently and that Capitalism trumps every other form of order, however due to the persistent shortcomings and flaws, the death of capitalism is near as he claims Marx has predicted. What he doesn’t know sadly is that even though capitalism does have its weaknesses and shortcomings, the roots of capitalism seem to have been dug deeply into the world structure today. To rip of the roots and to change the structure, it requires a lot of strength and dedication, which does not seem quite possible in the near future. Even though true hardcore capitalism does not exist in the world in practical application, countries that dominate the world order, for e.g. USA, Germany, UK, China and India are some examples that have undertaken Capitalism quite efficaciously and their strength cannot be combated easily. What we can wait to see is when will Socialism gather enough momentum and courage to come combat Capitalism. On a personal note however, I do not see Capitalism’s demise anytime soon, it might get reformed, but not abolished.