Imperialism – The Highest Stage of Inequality?

Abstract

The paper tries to examine the phenomenon of global inequality through the Global South-North Paradigm. The paper employs a historical approach and analysis of the political economy as tools for this study. Drawing from the Marxist and Dependency theoretical framework, the paper will first look at the main historical process through which this inequality came to exist, namely imperialism. Next, it will examine the formation of dirigiste regimes in the 1950s in the Global South, and their struggles for an equitable global order. It will then proceed to situate the contemporary condition of a globalized society, and will argue – on the basis of three case examples - that we have begun to see a reproduction of some of the characteristics of the economic system existing during the heydays of imperialism.