Poli Econ Chapter 4
Terms
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- structuralism
- A theory that accounts for the political-economic interconnectedness (structural relationship) between any number of entities: the bourgeoisie and proletariat, the core and periphery, the North and South. A number of ties bind these entities to one another, including trade, foreign aid, and direct investment. Much debate exists as to whether and how structural conditions can be changed or reformed.
- historical materialism
- The idea, central to Marx, that social and political institutions are built on a foundation of the economy. The idea that natural laws are based on physical things, not ideas alone.
- bourgeoisie
- In Marxian analysis, the bourgeoisie is the capitalist class, made up of those who own the means of production. In everyday language, this term often refers to the middle class.
- proletariat
- In Marxian analysis, the class of workers who do not own capital.
- class
- A collection of individuals who share certain socioeconomic attributes. Marx defined class based on their relation to the means of production.
- economic structuralism
- The idea that the economic structures of society, in particular, condition the outcomes for actors in society.
- imperialism
- Idea associated with the works of J.A. Hobson, V.I. Lenin, and R. Luxemburg. A superior-inferior relationship in which an area and its people have been subordinated to the will of interests of a foreign state. Imperialism is often associated with historical periods that correspond to conquest and colonization of developing territories by developed "modern" industrialized nations. Economic imperialism may result from a conscious policy of from the capital flows of private foreign investment.
- modern world system (MWS)
- A theory of economic development based on Marxist-Leninist ideologies. The MWS views economic development as conditioned by the relationship between the capitalist core and the less developed periphery nations. The historic mission of the core is to develop the periphery (often through the semiperiphery), but this development is exploitive in nature. The MWS therefore presents a theory that runs counter to liberal theories such as "hegemonic stability."
- core
- A term used in modern world system analysis (core versus periphery) in reference to the more developed capitalist part of the economic system, which interacts with the periphery, or less developed part of the system. These terms can refer to international geographic regions (e.g., North-South)or to sectors within a particular economy.
- periphery
- Non-industrialized sector of the modern world system that produces agricultural goods and natural resources. The theory hypothesizes that peripheral states (e.g., developing countries) are usually made worse off as a result of interaction with core states.
- semiperiphery
- An intermediate zone between the core and the periphery. South Korea and Taiwan might be considered part of the semiperiphery today in the modern world system theory.
- dependency theory
- A theory of the relationship between industrialized (core) nations and less developed (periphery) nations that stresses the many linkages that exist to make less developed countries dependent on richer nations. These linkages include trade, finance, and technology.
- intellectual hegemony
- Antonio Gramsci's theory that the dominant class maintains its position through the creation of an ideology or worldview that is accepted by society and thereby controls its actions. Social control, in Gramsci's view, is achieved by both coercion (police and military action) and consent (achieved through intellectual hegemony)
- organic intellectuals
- In Antonio Gramsci's theory of intellectual hegemony, these are intellectuals who are rained within the prevailing system and whose ideas therefore reinforce that system.
- McDonaldization hypothesis
- Consumer behavior is becoming that of the people in a McDonald's consumer line or a drive thru line. McDonald's looks like a factory custom-built for the efficient production and consumption of standardized food commodities. That the world looks this way derives fundamentally, in the of structuralists, from the power of economic structures in society.