A social system is a system consists of two or more individuals interacting directly or indirectly in a 1
bounded situation . A social system from various areas or sectors is dependant towards each other for economic exchange, which can exist without a common political structure or culture. This system exists in the division of labor. A social system with a complete division of labor but only a single culture system is called a minisystem. Such system no longer exists because it can only exist in a very simple agricultural or hunting and gathering society. A social system with a single division of labor but multiple culture system is called a world-system. World-system can also be divided into two; world-empires and world-economies. If the political system of the world-systems in a various areas is common, it is a world-empire. If it is not, then it is a world-economy. Historically, world-economies are unstable, hence will emerge as world-empires through disintegration or conquest. But then, modern world-economies emerged in Europe in the sixteenth century. This development creates a new world-economy system, which is capitalism. In the growth of capitalism, there exist two pseudo-problems: the persistence of feudalism, and the creation of socialist systems. On feudalism, Frank’s concept of “the development of underdevelopment” underdevelopment” states that when a
nation gets involved in a world-economy underdeveloped, thus capitalism takes its place. Capitalism starts off as what is called agricultural capitalism in Europe from the sixteenth century to eighteenth century. There grew up a world-economy with a single division of labor and a large world market of agriculture as well (means a single culture system, which is agriculture). This increased the need for wage-labor. Thus in a capitalist system, forced labor and slavery is kind of legalized. Then, the specialization of different agricultural products in differing regions hence produces three structural positions in a world-economy. Structural position Core area
Area/Region (in th the 16 century) Northwest Europe
Semi-peripheral area
Mediterranean Europe
Peripheral area
Eastern Europe and the Western Hemisphere
Specialization
Mode of labor control
High skill levels of agricultural production High-cost industrial products (eg: silks) and credit and specie transactions Exports of grains, bullion, wood, cotton, sugar
Tenancy and wage-labor Share-cropping and little export to other areas
Slavery and coerced cashcrop labor
The core areas are superior to the peripheral areas. The strengthening of the state-machineries state-machineries in core areas also causes the decline of the state-machineries in periphery areas due to unparallel
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SociologyGuide.com (n.d.) Social Systems. [Online] Retrieved from concepts/Social-System.php > [Accessed at 18 March 2012]
direction of the interests of the capitalist landowners with the local commercial bourgeoisie, plus the strength of the state-machineries in core areas i s a function of weakness of other state -machineries. The point is that the structural role a country plays in the world-economy at that moment of time will affect the strength of state-machineries of the nation. Another point is that the existence of the semi-peripheral areas comprehends the structural difference of core areas and peripheral areas. For world-systems to retain the relative political stability, three major mechanisms are needed. First, the military strength. Second, the pervasiveness of an ideological commitment to the system. Third, the division of the majority into the three stratums, core, semi-peripheral and peripheral. Without the semi-peripheral areas in a world-economy, the economy will still function as usual, just less stable in terms of politics. pol itics. Because the semi-peripheral areas will be exploited (by the core areas) and exploit (the peripheral areas) as well, the core areas will be politically opposed (by other areas). Ethno-nations are ethnic groups. It exists within the nation-states of a world-economy. It is a phenomenon of world-economies. The different class position such ethnic gro ups have in the worldeconomy caused the range of economic activities being far wider in the core area than in the peripheral area. This is due to the meaning of ethnic consciousness in core area is different than that in other area. Thus, more ethno-nations within national boundaries have political struggles. Thus, a capitalist world-economy requires different ethno-nations to focus on a single world market, at the same time, try to distort t he market for their benefits. Some may be more powerful than others, but never controls the world-market entirely.