The world can be split into two main world regions – the ‘periphery’ and the ‘ core.’ The core nations essentially own and control the main means of production (infrastructure) in the world and monopolize the higher-level production activities. The periphery nations pride in just but very little of the means of production and are the sources of cheap less-skilled labor that is often the target of multinational corporations. The core includes such countries that wield the greatest economic, technological, military and political powers. The periphery represents those that are not benefiting from the global relations of trade. In fact, the periphery is poor not because of poor resources but because of the domination and exploitation by the core. The two differ greatly in terms of development levels but at their interface is a buffer zone called the semi-periphery that borders on being developed/ wealthy and being poor.
The ‘core’ comprises the United States, Europe (with the exception of Russia, Ukraine, and Belarus), Canada, New Zealand, Australia, South Korea, Japan and Israel. It is within this area that most benefits of globalization and international trade relations typically accrue. The core countries are economically diversified and politically strong- enjoying such advanced military technologies as a nuclear power. They possess more intricate and powerful state institutions like the judiciary and parliament that help provide sound economic management. Owing to their economic development, and technological superiority, they enjoy an adequately reliable tax base and so infrastructural development is possible. Such countries pride themselves in the level of their industrialization- they are highly industrialized, producing manufactured goods as opposed to raw materials. Even with such economic superiority, the population is declining or constant e.g. in the Netherlands and other Scandinavian countries.
There is also a propensity towards specialization in information, finance and service sectors. Mostly the core countries are the first in developing and utilizing new technologies to advance their economic, political, military and ideological superiority. An example of such is the case of the automobile assembly-line that was developed in the early 1900s. Even so, throughout world history, the world has witnessed competition pitting the core nations against each other for the access of world resources, political dominance, economic and ideological superiority over the poor peripheral nations. The core nations enjoy the dominance in production which allows them to generate superior quality products, albeit at a cheaper price relative to other countries. This is possible since economies of scale are capitalized on. This in turn may lead to trade dominance and consequentially a favorable balance of trade boiling down to financial superiority as more money is generated than it is going out.
On the other hand, the ‘periphery’ consists mostly of countries in Africa and some in Asia (excluding Japan and South Korea). These areas are generally characterized by abject poverty coupled with low standards of living. Such countries are least economically diversified as almost all of them preoccupy themselves with the production of raw materials. Unlike their core counterparts, they have weak political structures that are vulnerable to civil unrest and they also have weak institutional structures that are poor in advancing justice to all. Compared to the adequately sufficient tax base of the core countries, the peripheral countries have little tax bases that are not able to support infrastructural developments and therefore emphasis is placed on donor funding. And as it were, donor funding is subject to donor stipulations and more often than not, such requirements are favorable to the poor countriesâ development. The peripheral countries are least industrialized and rely on the importation of almost-finished/ finished products to be assembled especially in the motor industry. Owing to their poor technologies and cheap unskilled labor force, they are targets for multinational investments e.g. the EPZ industries in Kenya. As a result of productivity inferiority, they are unable to enjoy trade dominance and therefore their products fetch low prices and the result is a perpetuation of financial weakness, chronic current account and trade balance deficits, repatriated foreign investments profits, and wanting business cycles. Whereas population is decreasing or constant in the core countries, the population is skyrocketing in the poor nations as a result of culture, high birth rate and low or declining death rates occasioned by lowering morbidity rates. As a result of the high population within a context of limited land and poor infrastructure, unemployment and poverty, rapid rural-urban migration is heightened resulting in slums, further unemployment, high crime rates and the formation of megacities e.g. Lagos, Nigeria.
In a nutshell, whereas the poor (peripheral) provide natural resources, cheap labor, and act as dumping ground for obsolete technology, the core countries of the world, with their wealth, are the source of manufactured goods that fetch good market prices, provide expensive skilled labor and are often the first to develop and utilize technologies in advancing their economic superiority. While the core countries struggle to maintain their economic dominance by inhibiting barriers, be they political, trade or ideological, on the way of the periphery, the poor peripheral countries on the other hand struggle to ape what the wealthy core does unsuccessfully, in the banking sector, media, politics, military, etc. For example, the growing fence between the United States of America (core) and Mexico (periphery) is aimed at barring unauthorized immigrants and by extension protecting American resources.
In conclusion, the striking differences between the core and the periphery are to be found in economic, political, technological, industrial and ideological. In terms of economic differences, the core countries represented by the U.S are economically superior to, say, a country like Kenya. This owes to the fact that the core enjoys economies of scale and is able to manufacture higher quality goods essentially fetching good market prices. Politically, the core countries boast of stable governments and are able to exert pressure on developing nations through diplomacy and sanctions, e.g. what America is doing in the Middle East. The core is primarily the source of technology and this has enabled the core to advance in industrial development, unlike the periphery that only receives obsolete technology. Ideologically, the core, particularly the US has been able to advance its democratic and rule of law ideologies by way of its hegemonic dominance and now almost every aspect of âThe American Dream is the world dream. Military dominance is also skewed towards the core. For example, the US boasts of a bigger military than Kenya and so itâs able to exert military power more than Kenya in championing its rights. There is, therefore, a need for the periphery to cut ties with the core and pursue their own development agendas based on Import Substitution Industrialization.