The Structured Dynamics in the World-System: A Network Analysis of Trade Patterns 1985-2004

The purpose of this paper is to analyze the hierarchically structured dynamics of the modern world-system using the network analysis. While the modernization theory presumed that the increase in international trade lead to economic growth for all the participants, the world-system perspective argued that there is persistent underdevelopment among the Third World because all the nation states participating in the world economy are unequally structured. These conflicting perspectives have continued to debate the matter of development. Of all the researchers concerning international relationship, those who used the network analysis did made a great advance in empirical field due to the relational nature of the world-system. However, previous studies have shown the static characteristic of the network of the world-system. In this paper, using bilateral trade data of Standard International Trade Classification(SITC) over 133 countries, we focus on the dynamics of the world system; the range and effects of the international division of labor depend on the sort of commodity. We used three commodities of SITC over 20-years for making clear our research question. We confirmed the main theme of the world-system perspective; a) The relationships between the core were denser than the periphery, b) The semi-periphery acted as a broker mediating the core and the periphery. Also, we found that there are differences among trade commodities in the world-system; a) Machinery(SITC-71) had been transmitted from the core to the periphery, b) Plastics and synthetics(SITC-58) maintained their superior status as the core industry, c) Footwear(SITC-85) showed secondary transmission and division of labor in the periphery and semi-periphery. This dynamics in commodities need to be more sophisticate argument in the field. The long-term changes in the international trades explained how the nation states were structured and also fluctuated by their structural position in the world-system.