Political Economy of the modern world system: the contributions of Wallerstein, Braudel and Arrighi

Abstract

The paper has two aims, the first is modest and the other is ambitious. The first objective is to introduce the main contributions of Wallerstein, Braudel and Arrighi in the formation of the World-System Approach as a research program. The notion of world capitalist system as unit of analysis and world-economy and inter-state system as basic elements of world-system are all Wallerstein´s contributions (section 2 and 3). The tripartide scheme is a main contribution of Braudel to world system analysis (section 4). Arrighi´s proposal to analyse the history of capitalism through the concept of systemic accumulation cycle is also a major contribution, section 5. A summing up of World-System Approach is presented in the section 6. Finally, the ambitious aim is to stimulate both the study of critical theories of development and analysis on contemporary capitalism based on World-System Approach.