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The NorthSouth Gap Chapter 12.1

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Free at last? Structural legacy of colonization and imperialism ... Borders and ethnicity and history. New governments = puppet governments ... – PowerPoint PPT presentation

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Title: The NorthSouth Gap Chapter 12.1


1
The North-South GapChapter 12.1
  • PSC 124
  • Northrup
  • Spring 2007

Impoverished diamond miners in Sierra Leone NYT
Article
2
Overview
  • Facts of poverty
  • Explanations for N-S gap Theories of
    accumulation
  • capitalism,
  • Socialism and Marxism
  • Explanations for gap Imperialism, colonialism,
    and dependency

3
World Poverty
  • People who die from malnutrition die because
    they cannot afford to buy food
  • A third of the worlds population are
    malnourished
  • Half the worlds population has inadequate water
    supply, live in substandard housing or are
    homeless
  • Almost half are illiterate
  • 99 dont have a college education
  • Half of all people globally have incomes of less
    than 2 a day
  • About a billion people live in abject poverty
    concentrated in Asia and Africa
  • Every 6 seconds a child dies as a result of
    malnutrition (14,000 each day) dying,
    ultimately, from poverty

4
Explanations for N-S Gap?
  • Theories of accumulation
  • Capitalism
  • Socialism
  • Economic class
  • Imperialism
  • Globalization of class
  • World system
  • Colonialism and anti-imperialism
  • Post-colonial dependency

5
Theoretical Perspectives
  • Liberal economic perspective capitalism
  • Maximizing economic growth
  • Global South merely lags behind North
  • Growth in both North and South is good
  • Government should basically stay out of the
    market
  • Revolutionary economic perspective socialism
  • Concerned with distribution of wealth
  • Creation of wealth in the North comes at the
    expense of the South
  • Government has a role in redistribution of wealth

6
Accumulation
  • Economic development based on accumulation of
    capital
  • Capital standing wealth
  • Buildings, factories
  • Roads, infrastructure
  • i.e., things of value that contribute to building
    more wealth
  • So not consumer goods
  • Growth comes from investing capital in creating
    more capital
  • Measure of economic growth doesnt indicate how
    much wealth has been accumulated in the past
    (e.g. US vs. Mexico

7
Concentration of Wealth is Self-Reinforcing
  • Possession of standing wealth makes possible
    efficient investment, and this generates more
    wealth
  • When wealth is concentrated in some states, this
    gives those states power and the ability to
    dominate politically (i.e. establish policies and
    regimes that favor themselves over others)

8
Capitalism
  • Basic principles
  • System of private ownership
  • Relies on market forces rather than government
    intervention
  • Surplus profit for private owners of capital
  • Reinvestment is encouraged because private owners
    want to increase their wealth
  • Does not seek equity in distribution of wealth
  • No state is purely capitalistic rather some
    form of mixed economy
  • Both private and public ownership
  • Government regulation to prevent abuses and to
    redistribute wealth to some extent

9
Socialism - Principles
  • Focus on workers having political power
  • Favors redistribution of wealth from private
    owners to workers
  • Favors government planning to manage a national
    economy
  • Some forms favor state ownership of industry
    but this hasnt worked well where tried
  • There are also strong disadvantages of pure
    private ownership, however (e.g. water,
    communications)
  • Does not exist in pure form anywhere
  • Mixed economies have an element of socialism in
    them

10
Socialism Economic Classes
  • Politics are structured by unequal relations
    between economic classes
  • More powerful classes exploit less powerful
  • Less powerful (e.g. workers) are denied their
    share of the surplus that is created
  • Bourgeoisie are owners of capital, proletariat is
    the class of workers
  • Marx said this leads to class struggle and
    revolution
  • (although Marxist analysis has often been wrong
    in its predictions about stages of development,
    class alliances, and who would engage in
    revolutions)

11
Imperialism
  • Lenins theory of imperialism
  • European capitalists invested in colonies to make
    large profits
  • Meanwhile bought off workers at home to keep
    them from revolting
  • This idea of industrialized states exploiting
    developing countries is common today (still
    contrasts with the liberal notion of the free
    market)
  • Referred to as globalization of class relations
  • Many colonized people took part in revolutions to
    achieve independence

12
World System Approach
  • Theory to explain current global situation
  • World system is considered a capitalist world
    economy where class divisions are regionalized
  • Postulates a core and a periphery
  • Core industrialized countries which produce
    manufactured goods, uses capital, required
    skilled workers, pays higher wages to workers
  • Periphery developing countries where raw
    materials are extracted (e.g. ore, diamonds,
    agricultural products), using unskilled labor
    with low wages and little investment in the local
    economy
  • Class struggle is between core and periphery

13
Dynamic of World System
  • Semiperiphery some manufacturing, some
    concentration of capital
  • Eastern Europe and Russia
  • Some newly industrializing countries e.g. Asian
    tigers (Taiwan, Singapore, S. Korea)
  • Actual patterns of world trade are consistent
    with this theory

14
Commodity Structure of World Trade by Region
15
History of Colonialism
  • Deeply relevant to current world politics and
    economy
  • 12th to 15th centuries European development
  • Rise of capitalism in Europe
  • Scientific and technological progress
    agriculture, industry, military
  • Able to dominate other world regions

16
Conquest of the World
Former Colonial Territories of European States
17
Colonial World 1898
Pink Britain Navy France Yellow Spain Dark
green Portugal
18
Cape-to-Cairo Empire for Brits
  • Racist and imperialist views embodied in Cecil
    Rhodes

19
The Red Line from Cape to Cairo
The path of the proposed Cape-to-Cairo road and
railway
20
Colonialism End of WWII
  • Colonialism at the end of WWII - 1945

Link Interactive Map of History of Colonization
21
Decolonization and Anti-Colonial Movements
  • Decolonization only 25 to 50 years ago in Asia,
    Africa, and Middle East
  • Anti-colonial independence movements took off
    after WWII

22
Areas of White Minority Rule in Africa, 1952-1994
23
Postcolonial Dependency
  • Free at last?
  • Structural legacy of colonization and imperialism
  • Training and experience re management of economy
    only colonizing group
  • Narrowly developed economies single and dual
    commodity economy, resources for the North
    (vulnerability)
  • Borders and ethnicity and history
  • New governments puppet governments
  • New governments - inefficiency, corruption

24
Independence? Borderlands, Railroads, and
Resources in Angola and Namibia
25
Elements of Dependency
  • Dependency theory explains lack of accumulation
    of capital in 3rd world
  • Dependency inability of a country to sustain
    itself internally through accumulation
  • Must borrow to produce goods
  • Debt payments - reduction in accumulation of
    surplus
  • Cant invest in new economic infrastructure
  • Lenders can dictate terms, conditions inside
    developing country (e.g. World Bank, IMF

26
Configurations of Dependency
  • Enclave economy
  • Oil in Cabinda province, Angola
  • Exxon Mobil oil production in Aceh, Indonesia
  • Diamonds in Sierra Leone
  • Nationally controlled production
  • Penetration by MNCs to create local markets
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