"- since the collapse of European state socialism, has there been any
discernible sign of upward mobility (toward the core of the world economy)?
--> if no, why is that? if yes, where?"Jozsef Borocz
There is an appearance of upward mobility against
a background of global polarization between center and periphery. It appears
in the emergence of a semi-periphery in South-East Asia. Capitalism polarizes
societies and nations by widening the gulf between the haves and the have-nots;
but it is ever creating middle-strata in societies and between nations.
Trade and Development Report 1997 of UNCTAD
(Part II, Chapter 2 and thereafter) gives empirical evidence and explanation
for this uneven development in the periphery. A. K. Dutt's "NICs, Global
Accumulation and Uneven Development" (World Development v.20, no
8 1992) is a tidy theoretical model linking NIC development with the stagnation
in the rest of the periphery.
Regards,
Cem Somel
Middle East Technical University
Ankara