An interesting book by a Dutch scholar:
REFERENCE:
Wil Hout
Capitalism and the Third World
Aldershot/England: Edward Elgar, 1993. 225 pages.
ISBN 1 85278 785 6
Hout takes three world system theories -- by Frank, Amin and Galtung --
and constructs three conceptual models (one for each author), measures
the key concepts with data for 1965, 1975 and 1985, and applies the
technique of path analysis in order to test the models.
The main concepts included in the formal models are:
(1) dependence of a country, (2) development of a country (multiple
indicators used), (3) exploitation of a country (measured as repatriated
profits by foreign companies + interest payments on foreign loans, as a
percentage of merchandise export earnings), (4) domestic inequality and
internal polarization, (5) concentration of production, degree of
extroversion and position in the world division of labour, (6) state of
the world system, (7) political regime of a country, democracy and
degree of repression, (8) economic distortion, (9) fragmentation and
marginalization, (10) spin-offs (a total of 10 concepts measured with the
use of 28 statistical indicators).
RESULTS
(A) Which WS professor was "the best"?
The overall performance of the models is measured in terms of the Rsquare
of the path analysis. All three theories-turned-into-models did equally
well, namely with Rsquare = 55% (plus/minus 2%).
[Which means that 55% of the variance in measured development levels of
countries was statistically "explained" by the variables and
their hypothesized causal paths.]
[By the way, the Rsquare = 55% found by Hout is similar in magnitude to
some of the Rsquares reported by Tausch in his long-cycle analyses. See,
Tausch, working paper in WSN archive.]
HIGHLIGHTS FROM Hout's CONCLUSIONS
(1) (p. 170) "A good number of relations [sc. specified by the three WS
scholars] have been 'confirmed'."
(2) (p. 170) "The most obvious contradiction between the results of the
path analyses and the theoretical predictions of the dependency scholars
can be found in the dependence - exploitation - development nexus."
(3) (p. 174) "The analyses show that countries experiencing a higher
degree of exploitation are more developed than countries that are
exploited less."
[note that the level of analysis is the country and not the worker]
This observation is served with a quote from the left-Keynesian economist
Joan Robinson, namely: "the misery of being exploited by capitalists is
nothing compared to the misery of not being exploited at all" (Robinson,
1964).
(4) (p. 179) "The polarization of society ... exerts a negative influence
on development."
(5) many other observations
(6) Wil Hout is of the opinion that the "capitalist world system is a
theoretical concept _pur sang_ ... the way in which the concept is used
is not always devoid of metaphysical connotations." (p. 172)
[What else would you expect from a Popperian?]
Overall, a very interesting book. Regarding suggestions for praxis, one
has to look elsewhere.
Regards,
Gernot Kohler
Oakville, Canada