POSITION OF SERBIA IN THE GLOBAL CAPITALIST SYSTEM

Text topic: New Key to Sociology

Text author: Стефан Мандић

Purpose of this work is examination of the position of Serbia in the global capitalist system according to economic characteristics, determination if it can be characterized as a country in the centre, semi-peripheral or peripheral to the global capitalist system, using economic parameters selected based on operationalized theory of Immanuel Wallerstain. The paper will show that the structure of capitalism displays clear differences in its centre, semi-periphery and periphery. The centre is a place with all the capital, where technological innovations and political power provide most sophisticated products which are also most expensive. However, its economic power is primarily based on the exploitation of periphery which offers cheap work force and low production costs. Semi-periphery is found between the centre and the periphery, and is so both the exploiter and the exploited. The Wallerstain’s theoretical standpoint is very fruitful for studies of modern social relations in the global context, based on exploiting a large number of countries in the global capitalist system.