1.1 The concept world-economy should be distinguished from that of world economy or international economy. The latter concept presumes that there are a series of separate “economies” which are national in scope, and that under certain circumstances these “national economies” trade with each other, the sum of these contacts being called the international economy. By contrast, the concept “world-economy” assumes that there exists an “economy” wherever (and if but only if) there is an ongoing extensive and relatively complete social division of labor with an integrated set of production processes which relate to each other through a “market” which has been “instituted” or “created” in some complex way. Today, the entire world-economy operating within the framework of this singular social division of labor we are calling the capitalist world-economy. ... 2 The capitalist world-economy has, and has had since its coming into existence, boundaries far larger that that of any political unit. It seems to be one of the basic defining features of a capitalist world-economy that there exists no political entity with ultimate authority in all zones. ... 3 The world-economy is a complex of cultures – in the sense of languages, religions, ideologies – but this complex is not haphazard. ... 4 The major social institutions of the capitalist world-economy – the states, the classes, the “peoples”, and the “households” – are all shaped (even created) by the ongoing workings of the world-economy. ... 5 The capitalist world-economy is a historical social system. ... The Patterns of the World-Economy:
2.1 The world-economy has a capitalist mode of production, that is, its economy has been dominated by those who operate on the primacy of endless accumulation, such entrepreneurs or controllers of production units driving from the arena those who seek to operate on other premises.
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