Globalization, Uneven Economic Development, Inequality, and Poverty: The Interactive Affects between Position in the Modern World System and Domestic Stratification Systems

Various data sources indicate that in the last decade(s) world poverty has decreased and global inequality between nations has diminished. However, within many less developed countries and even among some of the rich countries, primarily in the USA, inequality has increased dramatically while poverty has not gone down, or at times increased. From the 1970s, research focused on less developed nations, following the modern world system perspective, has shown that globalization has mostly lead to increasing inequality and less long term economic development in most nations, and in some cases even higher poverty. There is increasing evidence that a large part of the increasing inequality in the USA, in contrast to many EU countries, is related to economic globalization.

Recent evidence has suggested that the impact of economic globalization has contradictory effects in both developed and less developed nations. Other data show that less developed countries in Asia, in contrast to African and Latin America, are more likely to have more economic development, less poverty, and less growth in inequality from increasing ties to the global economy.

The paper summarizes some differences between the USA and EU nations that have led to the different outcomes of globalization. It focuses on data and several years of fieldwork in four Buddhist countries in Southeast Asia (Thailand, Vietnam, Laos, Cambodia) to identify some of the causes of the impact of ties to the global economy which vary even within Asian countries, showing some Southeast Asian countries (such as Cambodia) share more characteristics with African or Latin American countries that are related to very uneven economic development, rapidly increasing inequality, and no poverty reduction. 

This paper suggests how differences in domestic stratification systems are the key to understanding the varied impacts of economic globalization in both rich and less developed nations around the world.