Economic Growth in Wallerstein's Social Systems. A Review Article

Central to I. Wallerstein's thesis in THE MODERN WORLD SYSTEM. CAPITALISTIC AGRICULTURE AND ORIGINS OF THE EUROPEAN WORLD ECONOMY IN THE SIXTEENTH CENTURY (New York, NY & London, England: Academic Press, 1974), is his distinction between an empire, & a multistage SE system. In explaining their different development, as also in distinguishing within a multistate system between its "core," "semiperiphery," & "periphery," the decisive factor or criterion is the way surplus is appropriated & used. By surplus is to be understood that portion of production that was available for unproductive consumption, military action, or capital investment. Western Europe's economic growth & its creation of the modern world system came about because its multistate system & its class system resulted in the use of an important part of surplus to transform progressively the processes of production in Europe & overseas. Wallerstein contends that the relations of the European core to peripheral areas was the cause of the economic growth which made western Europe distinctive. He states his case in terms that are partly Marxist & partly more original. His arguments are engaging & learned, but they are presented somewhat confusedly & are not formulated in propositions of which the truth is demonstrated by systematic analysis of historical conditions & events. AA.