Re: Ethnic Hegemony and World-System

The question of ethnic hegemony in the world-system is a very interesting one, and, as warren wagar puts it, a multilayered one as well.

 

One interesting look into this issue can be found in Wallerstein's book "Unthinking Social Sciences" (1991), chap. 6 "The Myrdal Legacy: Racism and Underdevelopment as Dilemmas" [pp. 80-103].

 

Wallerstein analyses how racism (as distinct from xenophobia) is but  a manifestation of "ethnic hegemony", which in turn helps to perpetuate the underdevelopment of peripheral areas and human groups. Unlike Myrdal, who saw these two as (interconnected) solvable dillemas withing the political economy of the world system, W. asserts that they are, on the contrary, structural features and defining characteristics of the modern world system.

 

He goes on to show that these roles vary greatly according to hegemonic shifts, that whole groups of people are either "turned on" or "turned off" by the dominant (hegemoic) group in the world economy, and that socialization helps maintain these roles and their subsequent levels of (under)development - what he calls the class-ethnic understrata.

 

As I see it, it is a very interesting analysis - though not one without problems of detail. Wallerstein has pretty much come up with a theory of the circulation of elites (on the lines of Pareto), but based on ethnicity worldwide, rather than class/status within national units. Or, as he puts it, a way to keep people in ]the world economy] while keeping them out [of core position].

 

So, to answer Gernot Kohler on the light of this theory, polarization of income and capital accumulation does occur mainly along "ethnic" lines. As for your propostion of historical empires and world systems possesing "ethnic hegemony" but not capitalism... Well, on the one hand, that's going back to the Wallerstein-Frank&Gills debate on the origins of capitalism. On the other hand, if we accept Amin's typification of those historical systems as tributary, it follows that those paying (the heavier) tribute were primarily of "non-core ethnicities".

 

Warren, as to the advancement of the human agenda, Wallerstein clearly treats it as a very useful and effective way of controlling elite circulation within the world economy. That is, by advocating education today, we pstpone development for tomorrow. This is not to say that there are no benefits for the understrata to be derived from the furthering of the human agenda. It just states that the human agenda very rarely results in effectively raising levels of income/accumulation per capita in the ethnic understrata. They are equal, democratic, respected, educated and developing. But never developed. They are kept out of the core...

 

Well, I hope this has helped shed some light on the issue. I hope those interested on the issue will refer to Wallerstein's book, and I hope the issue will continue to be debated over the list.

 

Best regards,

 

Daniel Pinéu
danielfrp@hotmail.com

 

undergrad Pol Sci & International Relations
Universidade Nova de Lisboa, Portugal