The Modern World-System as a Unit of Analysis

There are a number of variants of world-systems analysis, however Immanuel Wallerstein has arguably developed the best known version. In the video above, Wallerstein talks about why he gravitated toward the world-system as a unit of analysis. He also talks about some of the epistemological problems he encountered when he pursued world-system analysis. The video is poor, but it is the only one I can find which discussed the unit of analysis and provides a useful starting point for this blog.

To him, the state as a unit of analysis didn't make sense, it's not where social action occurred. He saw the states organized within a hierarchical system. The Modern world system evolved in the 15th century and was a significant break, a capitalist world economy.

The epistemological problems hinted at involved the artificial academic disciplines between history, sociology, economics and history. From the standpoint of systems theory, the world system could only be studied from the system perspective, not from the perspectives of narrow academic disciplines.

The epistemological problems were clear to me when I was working on my dissertation in the late 1970's and early 1980's. The University of Wisconsin formally allowed interdisciplinary degrees but the academic disciplines I was interested in bringing together (sociology, history and economics) did not look very favorably on the project. Interestingly, the problems really had to do with the systems models I was using. Economists were not entirely comfortable they way concepts were being operationalized and the strong emphasis on empirical-statistical rather than theoretical model building (Kalman's data -> model approach that I'll discuss later), the sociologists were not yet comfortable with macro analysis and the historians were having trouble with quantitative history.

Wallerstein took, instead, a qualitative approach and was in the end more successful. I still think a quantitative approach to world-systems analysis using systems models is possible, especially since Wallerstein has paved the way with excellent qualitative analysis.

One other important epistemological point is that Wallerstein rejects the idea that he is developing world-system "theory". Rather, he looks at his project as world-systems "analysis". His perspective highlights the problem of theory construction in this area and is a topic I am pursuing in the Causal Macrosystems blog.

About

World-system theory (WST) has developed a new language for analyzing the historical social, economic and political development of societies based on concepts from General Systems Theory (GST). The basic GST concept is that all systems are organized in hierarchies. Applying this concept to the world system, WST find nation states organized into core, semi-peripheral and peripheral countries that create an inter-regional and transnational division of labor.

The premise about hierarcical organization, the analysis of world-system history and the adoption of other GST concepts has led to a number of conjectures. For example, the system works to the benefit of the core countries that brings in the Marxist theory of Capitalist Exploitation. Or, the role of long-swings and business cycles in creating historical conjunctures where the system changes its orientation. Or, technological changes originate in the core and are used to further exploit the peripheral countries. Or, hierarchical imbalances generate world-system conflict that reaches a peak during system conjunctures.

WST has, understandably, not pursued every insight from GST. There is more to be done, particularly in the area of quantitative systems analysis and model building. My interest in this blog is to investigate world-system conjectures using quantitative models based on GST. In another blog, I am developing Causal Macrosystems using directed graphs (structural equation models) and state-space theory, quantitative tools drawn from GST. In yet another blog (Economic Bubble Machine), I am looking at economic cycles. This blog will use the insights from those blogs to develop empirical systems models of core, semi-peripheral and peripheral countries.

The kinds of questions I will be asking of these models are:

1. Is there a difference between the structure and time-series behavior of nation states based on their position in the world system?
2. Are models for failed states different form other peripheral country models?
3. Are technological parameters and technological change different based on world-system position?
4. How are effects transmitted, if at all, from core to semi-peripheral and peripheral countries?
5. Is there a difference in how systems react to economic crises based on world-system position?
6. etc.

I have been working with GST macro models since the mid-1970's. My first macro-model was published in my dissertation Instability and Late Nineteenth Century German Development. My goal is to put together the things that I have learned in the last forty years for the next generation of model builders.

My first posts will be an attempt to understand world-system conjectures and state them in a way that can be tested with quantitative system models.