Theories of Global Stratification: Crash Course Sociology #28

Summary

This video explores two major theories of global stratification: Modernization Theory and Dependency Theory. Modernization Theory, rooted in structural functionalism, explains global inequality through technological and cultural differences, highlighting events like the Columbian Exchange and the Industrial Revolution. In contrast, Dependency Theory, based on conflict theory, focuses on how wealthy nations historically exploited poorer ones, particularly through colonialism. The video contrasts these perspectives, discussing critiques of each, while noting the improvement in global poverty rates over time and the ongoing debate surrounding economic inequality.

Takeaways

• 🌍 For most of history, poverty was widespread across all societies, but now global inequalities exist in terms of wealth and power.
• 🔧 Modernization theory explains global stratification by emphasizing technological and cultural differences, pointing to the Columbian Exchange and the Industrial Revolution as key drivers of Western economic growth.
• 🌾 The Columbian Exchange benefited Europe with agricultural products and trade opportunities, but it devastated Native American populations through disease.
• 🏭 The Industrial Revolution increased productivity through new technologies, benefiting Western societies and improving their standards of living.
• 💼 Modernization theory attributes Europe's development to the Protestant work ethic, promoting individualism and financial success.
• 🚀 According to Walt Rostow, modernization occurs in four stages: Traditional Stage, Take-off Stage, Drive to Technological Maturity, and High Mass Consumption.
• 🌱 Critics argue that modernization theory is Eurocentric and overlooks historical exploitation, environmental damage, and labor exploitation.
• 🧭 Dependency theory focuses on the global impact of colonialism, arguing that rich nations' wealth often came at the expense of poor nations.
• 📉 Wallerstein's Capitalist World Economy model views high-income nations as the 'core' and low-income nations as the 'periphery,' dependent on the core for economic survival.
• 💸 Both modernization and dependency theories have critics, with modernization seen as overly capitalist-focused, and dependency theory criticized for its limited scope and lack of practical solutions.

Q & A

What is global stratification, and how does it relate to socioeconomic inequalities between nations?

Global stratification refers to the unequal distribution of wealth and power among different countries, similar to the way socioeconomic classes are stratified within a single society. This concept highlights disparities in economic development between nations.

What are the two historical events that modernization theory credits for Western Europe's economic development?

Modernization theory credits the Columbian Exchange and the Industrial Revolution as two pivotal historical events that helped Western Europe develop economically faster than other regions.

How did the Columbian Exchange affect Europe and the Americas differently?

The Columbian Exchange benefited Europe by introducing new agricultural staples like potatoes and tomatoes, which led to population growth and economic opportunities. In contrast, the Americas suffered from the spread of diseases like smallpox and measles, leading to the death of over 80% of the Native American population.

What is the Protestant work ethic, and how did it contribute to Europe's modernization, according to Max Weber?

The Protestant work ethic, according to Max Weber, emphasized individualism, hard work, and financial success as signs of personal virtue. This mindset primed Europe for modernization by promoting progress-oriented values that supported economic growth and technological advancement.

What are the four stages of modernization according to Walt Rostow, and how do they explain economic progress?

Rostow's four stages of modernization are: 1) Traditional Stage, 2) Take-off Stage, 3) Drive to Technological Maturity, and 4) High Mass Consumption. These stages explain how societies evolve from subsistence-based economies to advanced economies driven by technology and mass production.

What is the main critique of modernization theory from its critics?

Critics argue that modernization theory is Eurocentric, promotes capitalism as the only path to development, and overlooks historical factors such as slavery, resource depletion, and environmental damage. They also claim that the theory blames poor countries for their lack of progress, ignoring the role of external forces in hindering development.

What does dependency theory propose as the reason for global stratification?

Dependency theory, rooted in conflict theory, argues that global stratification is the result of rich nations exploiting poor nations through colonialism and neocolonialism. This unequal relationship allows wealthy countries to accumulate resources and wealth at the expense of poorer countries.

How does Immanuel Wallerstein's 'Capitalist World Economy' model describe the relationship between wealthy and poor nations?

Wallerstein's model divides the world into three categories: the core (wealthy nations), the periphery (poor nations), and the semi-periphery (middle-income nations). Core nations exploit the resources and labor of periphery nations, maintaining an unequal economic system that benefits the wealthy while keeping poorer countries dependent.

What are some criticisms of dependency theory?

Critics of dependency theory argue that it overlooks the positive impact of foreign investment, ignores non-economic factors like culture and political regimes, and offers no practical solutions to global poverty. Additionally, some countries, such as Singapore and Sri Lanka, have developed strong economies despite having been former colonies.

How has global poverty changed in recent decades, according to the script?

Global poverty has significantly decreased, with the percentage of people living on less than $1.25 per day dropping from 52% in 1981 to 22% in 2008. This suggests that economic progress and global trade have improved standards of living for many around the world.

Outlines

00:00

🌍 The Evolution of Global Stratification

This paragraph provides a historical context for global stratification, explaining that poverty was once the norm across societies. It introduces the concept of global inequality, where wealth and power are unevenly distributed between nations. The paragraph highlights modernization theory, which attributes global stratification to technological and cultural differences, particularly noting the Columbian Exchange and the Industrial Revolution as key historical events. These developments helped Europe progress economically, while other regions lagged behind due to factors such as resistance to technological change and adherence to tradition.

05:01

💡 Criticisms of Modernization Theory

This paragraph presents criticisms of modernization theory, which suggests that global development could happen anywhere if certain steps are taken. Critics argue that the theory oversimplifies history and is Eurocentric, ignoring significant factors like colonialism, slavery, and resource exploitation that contributed to Western progress. It also points out the environmental and social costs of industrialization. Some argue that the theory unfairly blames poorer nations for resisting change, without considering the external forces that hinder their development.

10:04

⚖️ Dependency Theory and Colonial Exploitation

Here, the focus shifts to dependency theory, which contrasts modernization theory by examining how wealthy nations historically exploited poorer ones through colonialism. This paragraph outlines how European colonial powers and the U.S. expanded their territories, taking control of natural resources and labor, such as through the transatlantic slave trade. It introduces Immanuel Wallerstein’s Capitalist World Economy model, explaining how wealthier nations (the core) continue to benefit from the labor and resources of poorer nations (the periphery), even after the end of formal colonialism. Critics of this theory argue it overly blames the capitalist system and doesn’t account for internal factors like culture or politics.

📈 Global Trade and Improving Poverty Levels

This final paragraph discusses the impact of globalization and trade on living standards, noting the increase in global wealth and improved conditions in even the poorest nations. Despite debates over the effects of free trade agreements, such as NAFTA, the data shows that extreme poverty has decreased significantly since 1981. The paragraph concludes by summarizing the two major theories discussed—modernization theory and dependency theory—and highlights the continued improvements in global living standards, while acknowledging the ongoing challenges in resolving global inequality.

Keywords

💡Global Stratification

Global stratification refers to the unequal distribution of wealth, power, and resources between different countries. In the video, it highlights how some societies developed economically faster than others, leading to a hierarchy of rich and poor nations. This concept is explored through the lenses of both modernization theory and dependency theory.

💡Modernization Theory

Modernization theory explains global inequality as a result of technological and cultural differences between nations. According to this theory, countries that embraced technological innovation, like those in Western Europe during the Industrial Revolution, modernized faster. The theory suggests that poverty is due to traditional values that resist technological change.

💡Dependency Theory

Dependency theory offers a contrasting explanation for global stratification, focusing on the exploitation of poorer countries by wealthier ones. The video explains that richer nations became prosperous through colonialism, draining resources and labor from less developed nations. Dependency theory sees global inequality as a consequence of this historical exploitation and neocolonial practices.

💡Columbian Exchange

The Columbian Exchange was the widespread transfer of goods, crops, technology, and diseases between Europe and the Americas following Christopher Columbus's voyages. The video points out that while Europe benefited through new agricultural products and economic opportunities, Native American populations were devastated by diseases like smallpox, exacerbating global inequality.

💡Industrial Revolution

The Industrial Revolution, beginning in the 18th century, was a period of technological advancements that increased productivity through mechanization and steam power. According to the video, this revolution primarily benefited Western countries, leading to massive improvements in living standards and contributing to the economic divide between industrialized and non-industrialized nations.

💡Protestant Work Ethic

Max Weber’s idea of the Protestant Work Ethic suggests that Protestant values of hard work, financial success, and individualism fostered an environment conducive to economic growth in Europe. The video mentions this concept as part of the reason why Europe modernized more quickly than other regions, emphasizing the cultural factors in modernization theory.

💡Core and Periphery

Immanuel Wallerstein’s Capitalist World Economy model describes the 'core' as wealthy nations that control manufacturing and benefit from global resources, while the 'periphery' refers to poor nations that supply raw materials and cheap labor. The video explains that this dynamic perpetuates global inequality, with wealth flowing to core countries at the expense of the periphery.

💡Colonialism

Colonialism refers to the practice of powerful nations taking control of less developed regions to exploit their resources. The video discusses how European colonial powers established global dominance by claiming territories in Africa, Asia, and the Americas, fueling the wealth and power of the West while impoverishing the colonized regions, a key aspect of dependency theory.

💡Neocolonialism

Neocolonialism refers to the economic and political strategies through which powerful nations continue to exert influence over former colonies or less developed countries. The video mentions how multinational corporations now exploit labor and resources in poorer countries, maintaining economic dependency in the modern global economy.

💡Rostow's Stages of Modernization

Walt Rostow's theory outlines four stages of economic development: Traditional Stage, Take-off Stage, Drive to Technological Maturity, and High Mass Consumption. The video uses these stages to explain how societies progress from agricultural, tradition-based economies to advanced, consumer-driven ones, highlighting the focus on technological growth in modernization theory.

Highlights

Poverty was the norm for everyone for much of human history, but today, global stratification shows inequalities in wealth and power between societies.

Modernization theory, a structural-functionalist approach, explains global stratification as a result of technological and cultural differences between nations.

The Columbian Exchange between Europe and the Americas spread goods, technology, and diseases, contributing to population growth in Europe and the decline of Native American populations.

The Industrial Revolution allowed nations to increase productivity with new technologies like steam power and mechanization, benefiting Western Europe and other industrialized countries.

Modernization theory suggests that tradition versus technological change is a key barrier to economic growth, with individualism and innovation being key drivers.

Max Weber's 'Protestant work ethic' is linked to Europe's modernization, where financial success was viewed as personal virtue, promoting progress-oriented societies.

Walt Rostow’s model of modernization outlines four stages of economic growth: Traditional Stage, Take-off Stage, Drive to Technological Maturity, and High Mass Consumption.

Critics argue that modernization theory is Eurocentric and overlooks historical factors, such as colonialism and resource exploitation, that benefited Western countries.

Dependency theory, rooted in conflict theory, emphasizes that global stratification is tied to the exploitation of poorer nations by richer ones, especially through colonialism.

Immanuel Wallerstein’s 'Capitalist World Economy' model divides nations into the 'core' (wealthy nations), the 'periphery' (poor nations), and the 'semi-periphery' (middle-income nations).

Colonialism exploited both natural and human resources, with the slave trade and control of raw materials benefiting Western nations at the expense of colonized regions.

Dependency theory highlights how unequal trade patterns and debt keep poorer nations economically dependent on wealthier ones, reinforcing global inequality.

Critics of dependency theory argue that foreign investment and globalization can also improve poorer countries' economies rather than always perpetuating exploitation.

Both modernization and dependency theories have limitations, but the discussion around global stratification continues to evolve.

Global poverty has decreased significantly in recent decades, with the percentage of people living on less than $1.25 per day more than halving since 1981.

Transcripts

For much of human history, all of the societies on Earth were poor.

Poverty was the norm for everyone.

But obviously, that’s not the case anymore.

Just as you find stratification among socioeconomic classes within a society, like the United States,

across the world you also see a pattern of global stratification, with inequalities in wealth and power between societies.

So what made some parts of the world develop faster, economically speaking, than others?

[Theme Music]

How you explain the differences in socioeconomic status among the world’s societies depends, of course, on which paradigm you’re using to view the world.

One of the two main explanations for global stratification is modernization theory, and it comes from the structural-functionalist approach.

This theory frames global stratification as a function of technological and cultural differences between nations.

And it specifically pinpoints two historical events that contributed to Western Europe developing at a faster rate than much of the rest of the world.

The first event is known as the Columbian Exchange.

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

And if you wanna learn more about that, we did a whole World History episode about it.

This exchange worked out pretty well for the European countries.

They gained agricultural staples like potatoes and tomatoes, which contributed to population growth,

and provided new opportunities for trade, while also strengthening the power of the merchant class.

But the Columbian Exchange worked out much less well for Native Americans, whose populations were ravaged by the diseases brought from Europe.

It’s estimated that in the 150 years following Columbus’ first trip, over 80% of the Native American population died due to diseases such as smallpox and measles.

The second historical event is the Industrial Revolution in the 18th and 19th century.

We’ve mentioned this before, and there are a couple World History episodes that you can check out for more detail,

but this is when new technologies like steam power and mechanization allowed countries to replace human labor with machines and increase productivity.

The Industrial Revolution at first only benefited the wealthy in Western countries.

But industrial technology was so productive that it gradually began to improve standards of living for everyone.

Countries that industrialized in the 18th and 19th century saw massive improvements in their standards of living.

And countries that didn’t industrialize lagged behind.

The thing to note here is that Modernization Theory rests on the idea that affluence could have happened to anyone.

But of course, it didn’t.

So why didn’t the Industrial Revolution take hold everywhere?

Well, modernization theory argues that the tension between tradition and technological change is the biggest barrier to growth.

A society that’s more steeped in family systems and traditions may be less willing to adopt new technologies, and the new social systems that often accompany them.

Why did Europe modernize?

The answer goes back to Max Weber’s ideas about the Protestant work ethic.

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

in which financial success was a sign of personal virtue, and individualism replaced communalism.

This is the perfect breeding ground for modernization.

And according to American economist Walt Rostow, modernization in the West took place – as it always tends to – in four stages:

First, the Traditional Stage refers to societies that are structured around small, local communities with production typically getting done in family settings.

Because these societies have limited resources and technology, most of their time is spent laboring to produce food, which creates a strict social hierarchy.

Think Feudal Europe or early Chinese Dynasties.

Tradition rules how a society functions: What your parents do is what their parents did, and what you’ll do when you grow up too.

But as people begin to move beyond doing what’s always been done, a society moves into Rostow’s second stage, the Take-off Stage.

Here, people begin to use their individual talents to produce things beyond the necessities, and this innovation creates new markets for trade.

In turn, greater individualism takes hold, and social status is more closely linked with material wealth.

Next, nations begin what Rostow called the Drive to Technological Maturity, in which technological growth of the earlier periods begins to bear fruit,

in the form of population growth, reductions in absolute poverty levels, and more diverse job opportunities.

Nations in this phase typically begin to push for social change along with economic change,

like implementing basic schooling for everyone, and developing more democratic political systems.

The last stage is known as High Mass Consumption – when your country is big enough that production becomes more about wants than needs.

Many of these countries put social support systems in place to insure that all of their citizens have access to basic necessities.

So, the TL; DR version of Modernization Theory is that if you invest capital in better technologies,

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

And rich countries can help other countries that are still growing by exporting their new technologies in things like agriculture, machinery, and information technology, as well as providing foreign aid.

But critics of Modernization Theory argue that in many ways, it’s just a new name for the idea that capitalism is the only way for a country to develop.

These critics point out that, even as technology has improved throughout the world, a lot of countries have been left behind.

And they argue that Modernization Theory sweeps a lot of historical factors under the rug when it explains European and North American progress.

Countries like the US and the UK industrialized from a position of global strength, during a period when there were no laws against slavery or concerns about natural resource depletion.

And some critics also point out that Rostow’s markers are inherently Eurocentric, putting an emphasis on economic progress.

But that isn’t necessarily the only standard to aspire to.

After all, economic progress often includes downsides, like the environmental damage done by industrialization and the exploitation of cheap or free labor.

Finally, critics of modernization theory also see it as blaming the victim.

In this view, the theory essentially blames poor countries for not being willing to accept change,

putting the fault on their cultural values and traditions, rather than acknowledging that outside forces might be holding back those countries.

This is where the second theory of global stratification comes in.

Rather than focusing on what poor countries are doing wrong, Dependency Theory theory focuses on how poor countries have been wronged by richer nations.

This model stems from the paradigm of conflict theory, and it argues that the prospects of both wealthy and poor countries are inextricably linked.

This theory argues that in a world of finite resources, we can’t understand why rich nations are rich without realizing that those riches came at the expense of another country being poor.

In this view, global stratification starts with colonialism – and it’s where we’ll start today’s Thought Bubble.

Starting in the 1500s, European explorers spread throughout the Americas, Africa, and Asia, claiming lands for Europe.

At one point, Great Britain’s empire covered about one-fourth of the world.

The United States, which began as colonies themselves, soon sprawled out through North America

and took control of Haiti, Puerto Rico, Guam, the Philippines, the Hawaiian Islands, and parts of Panama and Cuba.

With colonialism came exploitation of both natural and human resources.

The transatlantic slave trade followed a triangular route between Africa, the American and Caribbean colonies, and Europe.

Guns and factory-made goods were sent to Africa in exchange for slaves, who were sent to the colonies to produce goods like cotton and tobacco, which were then sent back to Europe.

As the slave trade died down in the mid-19th century, the point of colonialism came to be less about human resources and more about natural resources.

But the colonial model kept going strong.

In 1870, only 10% of Africa was colonized.

But by 1940, only Ethiopia and Liberia were not colonized.

Under colonial regimes, European countries took control of land and raw materials to funnel wealth back to the West.

Most colonies lasted until the 1960s, and the last British colony, Hong Kong, was finally granted independence in 1997.

Thanks Thought Bubble.

This history of colonialization is what inspired American sociologist Immanuel Wallerstein’s model of what he called the Capitalist World Economy.

Wallerstein described high-income nations as the “core” of the world economy.

This core is the manufacturing base of the planet, where resources funnel in, to become the technology and wealth enjoyed by the Western world today.

Low-income countries, meanwhile, are what Wallerstein called the “periphery”, whose natural resources and labor support the wealthier countries,

first as colonies and now by working for multinational corporations under neocolonialism.

Middle-income countries, such as India or Brazil, are considered the semi-periphery, due to their closer ties to the global economic core.

In Wallerstein’s model, the periphery remains economically dependent on the core in a number of ways, which tend to reinforce each other.

First, poor nations tend to have few resources to export to rich countries.

But corporations can buy these raw materials cheaply and then process and sell them in richer nations.

As a result, the profits tend to bypass the poor countries.

Poor countries are also more likely to lack industrial capacity, so they have to import expensive manufactured goods from richer nations.

And all of these unequal trade patterns lead to poor nations owing lots of money to richer nations,

creating debt that makes it hard to invest in their own development.

So, under Dependency Theory, the problem is not that there isn’t enough global wealth; it’s that we don’t distribute it well.

But just as Modernization Theory had its critics, so does Dependency Theory.

Critics argue that the world economy isn’t a zero-sum game – one country getting richer doesn’t mean other countries get poorer.

And innovation and technological growth can spill over to other countries, improving all nations’ well-being, not just the rich.

Also, colonialism certainly left scars, but it isn’t enough, on its own, to explain today’s economic disparities.

Some of the poorest countries in Africa, like Ethiopia, were never colonized and had very little contact with richer nations.

Likewise, some former colonies, like Singapore and Sri Lanka, now have flourishing economies.

In direct contrast to what Dependency Theory predicts, most evidence suggests that, nowadays, foreign investment by richer nations helps, not hurts, poorer countries.

Dependency Theory is also very narrowly focused.

It points the finger at the capitalist market system as the sole cause of stratification,

ignoring the role that things like culture and political regimes play in impoverishing countries.

There’s also no solution to global poverty that comes out of dependency theory –

most dependency theorists just urge poor nations to cease all contact with rich nations or argue for a kind of global socialism.

But these ideas don’t acknowledge the reality of the modern world economy –

making them not very useful for combating the very real, very pressing problem of global poverty.

The growth of the world economy and expansion of world trade has coincided with rising standards of living worldwide,

with even the poorest nations almost tripling in the last century.

But with increased trade between countries, trade agreements such as the North American Free Trade Agreement

have become a major point of debate, pitting the benefits of free trade against the costs to jobs within a country’s borders.

Questions about how to deal with global stratification are certainly far from settled, but I can leave you with some good news: it’s getting better.

The share of people globally living on less than $1.25 per day has more than halved since 1981, going from 52% to 22% as of 2008.

Today we learned about two theories of global stratification.

First, we discussed modernization theory and Walt Rostow’s Four Stages of Modernization.

We then talked about dependency theory, the legacy of colonialism, and Immanuel Wallerstein’s Capitalist World Economy Model.

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