Global Systems & Governance - Global Systems

Question 1

What does Wallerstein’s Modern World System represent?

Answer 1

Immanuel Wallersteins, author of the Modern World System, looks at economic, social and political development. It treats the whole world as a single unit, meaning that it examines the interrelationships between different sets of countries. Any analysis of development must be seen as part of the overall capitalist world economy, not adopting a country by country approach.

According to Wallerstein, the capitalist world system has three main characteristics:

1) A global market.
2) Many countries, which allow political and economic competition.
3) Three tiers of countries

Question 2

What are the three tiers of The Modern World System?

Answer 2

The tiers are defined as:

1) The core: largely higher income countries (HICs).

2) The semi-periphery: a political label that refers to those countries where there are classstruggles and social change, such as Latin America in the 1980s and early 1990s.

3) The periphery: identified with lower income countries (LICs)

Question 3

What are unequal flows of people, money, ideas and technology?

Answer 3

Flows of people, money, ideas and technology may bring benefits to the source as well as to the destination. For example, migrants may boost productivity in a country, as well as send remittances back to their families. As migrants tend to be young, educated and innovative, they bring skills and a hard work ethic to the destination. They also remove some of these qualities from the source region. The migration of highly trained IT workers or doctors to countries that offer higher wages is a net loss to the country of origin.

Question 4

Summarise the Qatar case study for unequal flows

Answer 4

• Has the highest proportion of migrant workers to domestic population in the world.
• 90% of the 2 million population are migrant workers.
• Estimated increase of 1.2 million migrant workers to help build the infrastructure and stadia required for the 2022 World Cup.
• 400,000 Nepalese workers in Qatar.
• Qatar is building 9 state of the art stadiums, $20 billion of new roads, high speed rail network, 55,000 hotel rooms for fans and new airport.
• However, the negative consequences are that the migrants borrow the money for the travel to Qatar and then find themselves indebted to recruitment agencies and their conditions of their employment altered.
• Some are having to pay back their loans with an interest rate of 35% - hence they end up being forced to work for very little pay. 8) During 2012 to 2013, nearly 1000 workers from Nepal, India and Bangladesh died whilst working in Qatar, partly as a result of the working and living conditions.

Question 5

What are unequal power relations?

Answer 5

Unequal power relations enable some countries to drive global systems to their own advantage and to directly influence geopolitical events, while others are only able to respond or resist in a more constrained was. An example of this is the Chinese expansion in the South China Sea.

Question 6

Summarise the South China Sea case study for unequal power relations

Answer 6

• A vital trade artery
• Accounts for about 30% of the worlds trade passes, over £3 trillion in vale.
• China’s current behaviour there ignores international law, intimidates it’s neighbours and increases potential conflict between them and the USA.