world-system theory

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world-system theory colonialism fragile states
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The Three-Tiered Structure of the World-Economy

• Core (Many were colonial powers)
• More commonly has core processes that generate
  more wealth in the world-economy
• Higher levels of education
• Higher salaries
• More technology
• Periphery (Many were colonies)
• More commonly has peripheral processes associated
  with a more marginal position in the world
  economy
• Lower levels of education
• Lower salaries
• Less sophisticated technology
• Semiperiphery
• Places where core and periphery processes are
  both occurring
• Places that are exploited by the core but exploit
  the periphery

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• Explain the connection between
• Colonialism
• World-system theory
• Fragile states

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Forces that Unite and Divide

• Do Now What keeps the 50 states united?

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Form of Government

• Unitary vs. federal
• Unitary government
• One main governmental decision-making body for
  the entire state
• More common in smaller more homogeneous states
• Federal system
• Central government shares power with regional
  governments
• Which promotes unity more effectively?

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Blue unitary government
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Whee!....(barf)
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Forces that Unite and Divide

• Centripetal forces
• Unify a states people and regions
• Examples
• Unifying symbols (flags), pledge of allegiance,
  transportation/communication infrastructure,
  charismatic leader, strong national identity
  (based on language, religion, other cultural
  traits), shared history, external threat,
  disaster response
• Centrifugal forces
• Divide and tear apart a states people and
  regions
• (fragile states)
• Balkanization
• When centrifugal forces break apart a state into
  smaller pieces
• Examples
• Regional separatism, cultural divisions
  (religion, language), internal boundary
  conflicts, multicore state, physical
  geography/morphology

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• Devolution
• Movement of power from the central government
  to regional governments within the state, or
  breakup of large state into several independent
  ones.
• What causes devolutionary movements?
• Ethno-cultural forces
• Economic forces
• Spatial forces

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1.) Ethno-nationalism - ethnic groups see
themselves as distinct nations with the right to
control their own territory.
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• Quebec and Parti Quebecois in Canada
• Belgium Flemish (Dutch) in north, Walloons
  (French) in south
• Sudan Muslim north Christian south
• Sri Lanka Tamils, a Hindu minority fight for
  independence from the Sinhalese a Buddhist
  majority

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Who put the Balkan in Balkanization?

• Yugoslavia erupted into Civil War in the 1990s
• Background
• Thrown together after WW I with Serbia as the
  core of The Land of the South Slavs
• 7 major /17 minor ethnic groups, 3 religions 2
  alphabets
• North-Croats Slovenes Catholic
• South-Serbs are Orthodox
• Muslim enclaves
• Josip Broz Tito emerged as a communist leader
  after WWII
• Nationalism suppressed under his iron fist

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• Tito dies communism collapses
• ? ethnic conflict
• Serb vs. Croat
• Everyone vs. Muslims
• Slovenia, Croatia, Bosnia, Serbia, Montenegro
  Macedonia became independent.
• Bosnia-no clear majority-Muslims 44, Serbs 32
  Croatians 17
• Dayton Accords partitioned Bosnia ended the
  civil war

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2.) Economic forces of devolution
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• Poor regions can feel disadvantaged by
  wealthier ones, or wealthier regions can feel put
  upon by subsidies to poorer ones.
• Examples include
• Italy the richer North pushed for autonomy from
  poorer South
• Brazil Wealthier provinces of southern Brazil
  argue their tax money is being misspent by the
  government for assistance to Amazonia.
• Spain Catalonians have 6 of territory, 17 of
  population, but 25 of exports, and 40 of
  industrial product. Devolutionary demands by
  Catalonian nationalists.

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• Catalonia, Spain
• Barcelona is the center of banking and commerce
  in Spain and the region is much wealthier than
  the rest of Spain.

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The Forces of Devolution

• EU and euro centrifugal or centripetal?
• Ironically, centrifugal
• Londons decision to join EU encouraged Scottish
  nationalism.
• 1990s Scottish National Party encouraged
  devolution.
• 1997 Labour Party gave Scots Welsh chance to
  vote both voted to have their own parliaments

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3.) Spatial/Territorial Forces of Devolution
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• Spatial factors
• remote frontiers
• isolated villages
• rugged topography
• repeated historic invasions,
• islands, such as
• Corsica for France
• Sardinia for Italy
• Taiwan for China
• East Timor for Indonesians
• Jolo (Philippines)
• Puerto Rico for the U.S.
• 1997, native Hawaiians demanded return of rights
  lost during occupation by the U.S.

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Topic Spatial Characteristics of States
(Territorial Morphology)

• Aim In what ways can the shapes of states
  influence them?
• Do Now In what ways does the shape of your house
  influence how you live?

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The State of Shapes Activity

• Territorial morphology
• Relationship between a states geographic shape,
  size, relative location, and its political
  situation
• For each of the following countries, try to
  determine the relative advantages and
  disadvantages that might be caused by the shape
  of the state

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Uruguay, Zimbabwe, Poland, Belgium, Rwanda
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Shape Compact

• Distance from the center to any boundary does not
  vary significantly
• Often the political ideal because no one part
  feels to far from the center of control
• Most efficient form is a circle with a capital in
  the center, and the shortest possible boundaries
  to defend

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Norway, Chile, Vietnam, Italy, Gambia
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Shape Elongated

• Long and narrow shape
• Diversity of climate, resources, and cultures
• Can lead to loss of influence in areas far from
  capital
• May pose transportation problems because of
  distances
• National cohesion difficult may suffer from
  poor internal communications

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Namibia, Oklahoma (U.S. State), Thailand,
Afghanistan
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Shape Prorupt (aka - protruded or panhandled)

• Has a piece that protrudes from its core area
• Like an arm or leg jutting off from the main body
• Proruption may be natural or artificial
• Proruptions can be built to gain access to
  resources, or to separate areas from one another
• The protruding piece may try to break away or may
  be invaded

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South Africa Lesotho / Rome Vatican City/
Senegal Gambia
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Shape Perforated

• State that completely surrounds another one
• The surrounded state (Lesotho, e.g.) thus depends
  heavily on the state surrounding it for
  imports/exports
• May cause tension
• http//www.youtube.com/watch?vVui-qGCfXuAlistUU
  2C_jShtL725hvbm1arSV9w

Video - Countries Inside Countries Bizarre
Borders part 1 (YouTube - 2 minutes)
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Indonesia, Azerbaijan, Russia, Denmark,
Philippines
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Shape Fragmented

• Several discontinuous pieces of territory - 2
  types
• separated by water - (e.g. island nations such as
  Indonesia, 13,677 islands, or Malaysia)
• separated by an intervening state - (e.g. Angola
  divided by Congo proruption or Russian territory
  of Kaliningrad separated by Lithuania and
  Belarus)
• Also known as an exclave, e.g., Alaska
• Fragmentation weakens communication, fragments
  culture, and makes centralized control difficult

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Landlocked States

• Surrounded by other countries on all sides
• Lack a direct outlet to the seas
• In other words they have no coastline
• Must depend on neighbors for access to water
  sources for trade and navigation
• There are over 40 landlocked states in the world

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What do you think?

1. Which state shape would most exacerbate
   centrifugal forces? Explain.
2. Which state shape would most support centripetal
   forces? Explain.