Sociology ch. 10

Global Stratification

Patterns of social inequality in the world as a whole

In global perspective, the distribution of wealth is ______

Extremely uneven

High-Income Countries

Relatively rich, industrialized nations. This includes most of Western Europe, Canada, the United States, Japan, Australia and New Zealand.

Middle-Income Countries

Per capita incomes between $2,500 and $12,000 per year. Have experienced some industrialization, but agriculture remains important to their economies. This includes Venezuela (LA), Cape Verde (Africa), and Vietnam (Asia), Ukraine and Georgia (Eastern Europe)

Low-Income Countries

Primarily agrarian societies with little industry. Most of the people are very poor. These countries are found in Central and Eastern Africa and in Asia.

Poverty in poor countries is ____ _____ than in rich countries

More severe

The extent and severity of child poverty is ______ in the low-income countries

Greatest

Four types of Slavery

1. Chattel

2. Child

3. Debt bondage

4. Servile forms of marriage

Chattel Slavery

One person owns another

Child Slavery

Abandoned children or those living on the street

Debt Bondage Slavery

Occurs where people are paid less than they are charged for food or shelter

Servile Forms of Marriage

Women being forced into marriage, then being forced to do all the work and being kept to strict standards and little freedom

Correlations of global poverty in the poorest nations

1. Technology is limited

2. Population growth is dramatic

3. Cultural patterns emphasize tradition

4. Social stratification is very pronounced

5. Gender inequalities are also dramatic

6. Global power relations handicap the poorest nations

Colonialism

Process by which some nations enrich themselves through political and economic control of other countries

Neocolonialism

A new form of global power relationship that involves not direct political control, but economic exploitation by multinational corporations

Multinational Corporations

Large corporations that operate in many different countries

Modernization theory

Model of economic and social change that explains global inequality in terms of differing levels of technological development among societies.

The development of industrial technology has _____ the standard of living of even poor people in high-income societies

Raised

Modernization theory identifies ______ as the greatest barrier to economic development

Tradition

Rostow’s stages of modernization

1. Traditional stage

2. Take-off stage

3. Drive to technological maturity

4. High mass consumption

The role of rich nations in global economic development

1. Helping control population

2. Increasing food production

3. Introducing industrial technology

4. Providing foreign aid

Critical review of Modernization theory

1. Widely supported among social scientists

2. It has heavily influenced the foreign policies of the richer nations

3. It has been attacked as a thinly veiled defense of capitalism

4. It ignores global forces that thwart the development of the poorer nations

5. It largely ignores the way in which all nations are linked through the global economy

6. Holds up the developed world as a model that all nations should emulate, reflecting an ethnocentric bias

7. Blames victims for their own economic problems

Dependency Theory

Model of economic and social development that explains global inequality in terms of the historical exploitation of poor societies by rich ones

The economic success of many _____ nations was achieved at the _____ of the poorer countries

Wealthier, expense

Neocolonialism _____ economic relationships shaped under colonialism

Perpetuates

Wallerstein’s capitalist world economy

1. Rich nations are the core of the world economy

2. Low-income nations are at the periphery of the world economy

3. The dependency of the peripheral nations result from

• Narrow, export-oriented economies

• Lack of industrial capacity

• Foreign debt

Rich nations have contributed to global inequality by what?

Their single-minded pursuit of profit

Critical review of Dependency Theory

1. Correctly emphasizes the interdependency of the world’s societies

2. It treats wealth as a zero-sum commodity

3. Predicts that countries with the strongest ties to rich nations should be the poorest, but this is not the case

4. Ignores the role of traditional culture in maintaining poverty

5. Downplays the economic dependency fostered by the former Soviet Union

6. The policy implications of dependency theory are vague

The future of global stratification

1. Modernization theory is correct in arguing that world hunger is at least partly a problem of production and technology

2. Dependency theory is correct in claiming that global inequality is also a problem of distribution and politics