Based on Structuralist theory (World
System Theory) there are three different kind of country that exist in this
world and together they lead the world to a better place because each of them
complete the other so that the world can be how it is now. Structuralism came
up as a reaction to Marxism theory, Marxist believe that the world would be a
better place if there are no classification and Structuralist believe that the
world needs classification so that each country knows their own role to make a
better world economy. Structuralist theory (World System Theory) classify
country into three categories: core country, semi-periphery and periphery
country.
Core Country : Core country is a
powerful country and the capital holder, and tends to be the one who controls
over other countries (periphery country).
-
United States
-
Australia
-
Japan
Semi-periphery Country : Semi-periphery
countries play a major role in mediating economic, political, and social
activities that link core and peripheral areas, and it’s generally
industrialized.
-
China
-
India
-
Brazil
Periphery Country : It is a poor
country that usually is being used by the core countries, periphery countries
are the country that doesn’t have the power in economy, military or politics,
their institution is weak too. Periphery countries are weaker than core and
semi-periphery country.
-
Africa
-
Afghanistan
-
Myanmar
This kind of classification shows
that there’s a distinction that could leads to a discrimination to the smaller
country. And also there’s gonna be a dependency between them because core
country’s gonna need periphery country as the sources of raw materials, and
then they will process it into an useful product and after that they gonna sell
it to periphery country with a higher price. So basically core country gets
more advantage and profit than periphery country. Periphery country here is
only able to sell their natural resources because they don’t have the ability
to produce and process their natural resources
like core countries. And it minimizes the possibility for periphery or
semi-periphery country to develop and become core country.
With this kind of view, it’s
gonna be hard for China (semi-periphery country) to become a powerful country
like America (core country) even though China’s getting closer and closer every
year to replace America to be hegemonic country. China’s economic growth
increase every year and their product is all over the world while it’s hard for
America to get into China’s market because there’s a restriction on import so
that local producers and company can be protected. And while China is having a
rapid progress now, America is facing the financial crisis nowadays that makes
their economic condition is unstable. It shows that there’s a very huge
possibility that someday China will replace America as the most powerful
country in the world. But back to the way we see it, if we use Structuralist
perspective in this case, that kind of thing won’t happen because China tends
to follow the system where America stands as a core country and China stands as
a semi-periphery country. China will see the dependency between core country
and semi-periphery country and also with periphery country as well, and China’s
going to believe that classification is no big deal as long as trade’s still
running and economic transaction doesn’t stop.
Although China seems strong
enough to replace America, if structuralist theory is applied to this case the
result will be “those who already rich is getting richer and for those who
already poor is getting poorer”. Core countries tend to take the advantage of
this classification and there’s nothing periphery and semi-periphery can do
because like it or not, they need core country as a resource too because they
know that they haven’t been able to process raw materials like how core country
do. They’re still left behind in technology and industry so it makes them can’t
complain about being one step lower than the powerful country.
References:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Semi-periphery_countries
Created by:
Yohana Sarah Mukti Kristanti / 1701349933
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