World-Systems Networks

Origins of World-Systems

The modern world economy has its origins in 16th-century western Europe. According to Wallerstein, a world system is a social system that possesses limits, structures, groups of persons, rules of legitimization, and coherence. The world system consists of conflict between the forces (which remain joined by tension), since every group looks out for its own benefit and survival over the existence of other groups. It possesses the same characteristics as an organism, which evolves and changes to survive but is kept stable in many of the aspects that allow it to maintain its own identity.

A decrease in agricultural production due to adverse climate conditions and epidemics provoked the fall of the feudal regime. This caused a critical wasting of the population and the crumbling of this productive system. This is posited as one of the main reasons for the emergence of the world system, based on the economic international transactions between countries with different political regimes. The technological innovations of the Industrial Revolution fundamentally changed transportation and communication and established the capitalist system. This would be supported, according to world-systems theory, by the exploitation of the resources of the least-developed countries.

The world-systems theory refers to three main groups of countries that support the permanency of the global system through their interrelationships and interdependence. First, there are countries from the center, which refers to the most developed countries—those that are part of what are also referred to as the “first world” and are the principal beneficiaries of this global organization. The fall of feudalism caused a group of countries to emerge from the ostracism of feudalism and belong to this center. In the first phase of this world economy, these countries were France, England, and Holland. They developed very strong central governments, powerful armies, and extensive bureaucratic systems. The new political and social reality of these regions allowed the local middle class to begin to control national and international commerce and obtain important benefits from the capital surpluses derived from these commercial transactions. In addition, the agrarian crisis that partly caused the fall of feudalism provoked a rural exodus toward the cities, promoting economic development in these countries. Financially ruined peasants who moved to the cities looking for a job were folded into the workforce for large, emerging manufacturing companies; this in turn spurred an increase of production that needed to be absorbed by the market.

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