Explain the central tenets of the World-Systems Theory.
How the answer moves
The flow snapshot — the routes in, the body, the counter-view and the routes out.
Route 1 global inequality is structural, not a gap between isolated nations → one capitalist world-economy since the sixteenth century
Route 2 Wallerstein’s single social system → global division of labour → unequal distribution of wealth and power
single world-system → core / periphery / semi-periphery (buffer, political > economic) → unequal exchange, surplus periphery → core, capital accumulation → core’s wealth ↔ periphery’s underdevelopment → Frank’s development of underdevelopment → historical capitalism: positions shift, hierarchy persists → states as variables → imperialism + temporary hegemony
charges of determinism and Eurocentrism
Route 1 concede determinism / Eurocentrism → still a sharp lens on Africa and Latin America
Route 2 hierarchy persists under global capitalism → theory keeps explaining the periphery’s continued poverty
Model answer
Handwritten, in the form it would be written in the examination hall.
