What reason might a rich country like the United States have for keeping a poor country poor–what do we gain from this?
Answer these two questions separtly with about 250 words each.
Dependency theory: global inequality can be explained in terms of the historical exploitation of poor nations by rich ones
◦ Colonials vs. colonized
◦ What worked for rich countries 150 years ago can’t happen
again today…
Conflict theories of globalization
-Poor countries today cannot climb out of poverty because rich countries need them to stay poor…
◦ Cheap labor
◦ Cheap natural resources
1. Thinking about the facts and theories explored in our globalization slides, do you think there are opportunities for poor countries to rise up and become rich countries over time? How do you think this could happen? What reason might a rich country like the United States have for keeping a poor country poor–what do we gain from this?
2. Recall that world system theory says that poor countries can get into global trade, but that they’ll never make enough money from it to rise to rich-country status. And yet, within the last few decades, we have observed countries like China and India doing just that: starting off as a poor country, getting into global trade, and becoming two of the world’s largest economies. Focusing on one or both of these examples, do you think they prove world system theory wrong? Or is there something about these two cases that’s special, while all other poor countries will stay poor like the theory says?
