Dependency theory and the world-system

   

Wallerstein’s conception intersects with dependency. He posits a five-century world system model with competitive pillars, secular cycles, and changing hegemonies. It portrays central, peripheral and intermediate insertions based on productive modalities and commercialized products. It describes the same polarization, stable stratification, and recreation of underdevelopment that diagnoses the Marxist theory of dependency.
But the two approaches diverge in several areas. Closed systems differ from contradictory modes of production. The exact forecast of terminal crises contrasts with the hierarchization of the political-social dimension. The automaticity of long cycles is contrasted with attention to class confrontation and the theories of absolute pauperization distance themselves from the gravitation assigned to social conquests.
There are also discrepancies in the inclusion of the former socialist bloc within the world system and in the assessment of anti-imperialist mediations and national revolutionary traditions. The record of emancipation as an episode that is only contemporary and unrealizable in the past is highly controversial and controversy persists regarding political strategies that disregard the state.
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