CAPITALISM IN OUR MODERN WORLD: THE WALLERSTEIN WORLD SYSTEMS VIEW

Abstract

Capitalism has been a contentious issue for centuries. This paper offers a brief biography of Immanuel Wallerstein whose work focused on the contemporary crisis of the capitalist world-economy. It will explain the world systems theory analysis as proposed by Wallerstein, his macro sociology-based theory perspective that seeks to address the dynamics of the capitalist economy as a comprehensive social system and discuss the three level class structure approach to economics in the texture of global inequality. This paper reports the results of qualitative interviews with 25 economists from Bangkok, Thailand in 2021, to understand their perceptions on Wallerstein's sociology-based theory on world economics and determine if socialist theory could be used to describe the current capitalist system. The findings of this paper postulate that the Wallerstein world system theory describes the current capitalist world to an extent. It however does not describe the mutual relationship that has sprung up between states in the core group, and those in the semi peripheral level. The paper also believes that poorer states with allegiance to the core states seem to find it difficult to grow out of the shadows of their superiors thereby ensuring that resources and profits flow in the direction of the core states. States in the peripheral level would hardly leave that level except there is a deliberate and conscious effort to ensure that during trade dealings with the core states, the balance of trade is favorable to them.