Chapter 11Global Stratification

Key Terms

Global system of stratificationA system of inequality for the distribution of resources and opportunities between countries.

Per capita gross national product The total volume of goods and services produced by a country each year, divided by the size of the population.

Sweatshop Defined by the U.S. General Accounting Office as a workplace where an employer violates more than one law regarding federal or state labor, industrial homework, occupational safety and health, workers’ compensation, or industry regulation.

First-world countriesThe industrialized countries of the world (United States, New Zealand, Australia, Japan, and countries of western Europe.)

Second-world countriesCountries with a communist based government and a state managed economy.

Third-world countriesCountries that were poor, underdeveloped, largely rural, and with high levels of poverty.

Core countries Countries that control and profit the most from the world system and thus they are the "core" of the world system.

Semi-peripheral countriesCountries that play a middleman role in the world economic system, extracting profits from the other poor countries and passing those profits on to the core countries.  

  Peripheral countries

Poor, largely agricultural countries of the world.

Gender development indexProvides indicators of the relative well being or deprivation of women in different nations. 

  Modernization theory

A market-oriented approach, sees economic development as a process by which traditional societies become more complex and differentiated.

Dependency theoryThe poverty of the low-income countries is a direct result of their political and economic dependence on the wealthy countries.

  Neo-colonialism

Form of control of the poor countries by the rich countries but without direct political or military involvement.

Multinational corporationsAlthough executives and stockholders are from the industrialized countries, they recognize no national boundaries and pursue business where they can best make a profit.

  World systems theory

Argues that the level of economic development is explained by understanding each country’s place and role in the world economic system.

New international division of labor Focuses on the specific mechanism by which differentiated profits are attached to the production of goods and services. 

  Commodity chain

Network of production and labor processes by which a product becomes a finished commodity.

Relative povertyThe measure used in the U.S. to define poverty relative to the rest of the population.

  Absolute poverty

The situation in which human beings do not have enough money for basic survival.

Extreme poverty The situation in which people have less than $275 per year to live on.

Human poverty index Indicates the degree of deprivation in four basic dimensions: a long and healthy life, knowledge, economic well being, and social inclusion.

Double deprivationWomen in poor countries suffer because of their gender and because they disproportionately carry the burden of poverty.

  Newly industrializing countries

Countries that have shown rapid growth and have emerged as developed countries.