ch 8

Chapter 8 Summary

What Is Global Inequality?

• Global inequality refers to the systematic differences in wealth and power that have

resulted from globalization.

• In defining poverty, a distinction is usually made between absolute and relative

poverty.

• Absolute poverty means that a person or family can’t get enough to eat. Relative

poverty is a measure of inequality. It means being poor as compared with the

standards of living of the majority population.

• An estimated 1.3 billion people in the world, or nearly one in four people, live in

poverty today, an increase since the early 1980s. Many are the victims of

discrimination based on race, ethnicity, or tribal affiliation.

What Is Daily Life Like in Rich vs Poor Countries?

• In general, people in high-income countries enjoy a far higher standard of living than

their counterparts in low-income countries. They are likely to have more food to eat,

less likely to starve or suffer from malnutrition, and likely to live longer. Additionally,

they are less likely to have large families, and their children are much less likely to

die in infancy of malnutrition or childhood diseases.

• Lower income countries lack sophisticated educational systems. Education

contributes to economic growth, may offer hope for escaping the cycle of harsh

working conditions and poverty, and educated people tend to have fewer children.

• In lower-income countries, children are often forced to work because of a

combination of family poverty, lack of education, and traditional indifference to their

condition.

Can Poor Countries Become Rich?

• Several lower-income countries in East Asia have undergone a process of

industrialization in the past few decades, and most of them have become middle-

income countries while some have moved into the high-income category.

• A combination of historical, cultural, and economic ethos has complimented this

rising trend in economic growth, although many of these changes have also been

accompanied by social problems such as the withholding of labor and civil rights.

How Do Sociological Theories Explain Global Inequality?

• Market-oriented theories of global inequality, such as modernization theory and

neoliberalism, claim that cultural and institutional barriers to development explain

the poverty of low-income societies. In this view, to eliminate poverty, fatalistic

attitudes must be overcome, government meddling in economic affairs ended, and

a high rate of savings and investment encouraged.

• Dependency theories claim that global poverty is the result of the exploitation of

poor countries by wealthy ones, beginning with colonialism. Even though the

economic fate of poor countries is ultimately determined by wealthy ones, some

development is possible within dependent capitalistic relations.

• World-systems theory argues that the capitalist world system as a whole—not just

individual countries—must be understood if we hope to make sense of global

inequality. World-systems theory focuses on the relationships of core, peripheral,

and semi peripheral countries in the global economy; long-term trends in the global

economy; and global commodity chains that erase national borders.

• An update to the world-systems theory has come in the form of global-capitalism

theory. Contrary to world-systems theory, which views the state as a national actor

serving to advance the interests of its national business class, the global capitalism

approach sees stateless corporations as the key actors in the global economy.

What Does Rapid Globalization Mean for the Future of Global Inequality?

• No one can say for sure whether global inequality will increase or decrease in the

future. It is possible that some leveling out of wages will occur worldwide, as wages

decline in wealthy countries and rise in poor countries. It is also possible that all

countries will someday prosper as the result of a unified global economy.