Re: Global inequality

11/25/2000, Jason W. Moore wrote:
    > Peter Grimes contends that: "Globlization today is a
    process of acceleration in the ability of Capital to vitiate
    the effective power of the nation-state, thereby eroding the
    old core-periphery hierarchy BETWEEN states and substituting
    instead that hierarchy WITHIN them." 
       This, it strikes me, is a rather fanciful notion that has
    gained widespread currency on the left these days. I have
    yet to see any convincing data to this effect. Core
    countries, by and large, have remained in the core,
    peripheries have remained peripheries, and the gap between
    them, by most accounts, continues to grow.

That's the tail & trunk... as for the elephant...
if we are comparing today with pre-1945, then I suggest the 
structural changes are:
    1) From the perspective of the periphery, exploitation
       by the core has continued and intensified, with only
       a change of methods.
    2) From the core perspecive, imperialism has been collectivized,
       with military enforcement handled by USA.
    3) Within core nations, the implicit social contract between
       capital and middle class has been abrogated by capital,
       leading to comprehensive imperialization of populations
       in the core, although less draconian than in the periphery.
    4) Above are necessitated to continue capital growth, and enabled
       by automated hi-tech weapons systems.

rkm