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Centro Argentino de Estudios Internacionales / Entelequia. Revista Interdisciplinar
currency, called Purchasing Power Standard (PPS), which equalises the
purchasing power of different national currencies and thus allows meaningful
comparison. The ratio is shown in relation to the EU average (EU-25 = 100). If
the index of the comparative price levels shown for a country is higher/ lower
than 100, the country concerned is relatively expensive/cheap as compared with
the EU average.” (Quotation from Eurostat website, April 6, 2005, at:
http://epp.eurostat.cec.eu.int/portal/page?_pageid=1133, 1406352,
1133_1406373&_dad=portal&_schema=PORTAL
“Comparative price levels” do measure nothing else but the reciprocal value of
our variable “unequal exchange” (ERDI). A country, following the Commission’s
price reform strategy, is a country with a low international price level and a high
ERDI.
The abundant research literature on the semi-periphery highlights the nonpermanent
character of the semi-peripheral position, with historic strong upward
and downward movements, but a stability of the structure as such. While some
semi-peripheries rise, the others stagnate, almost suggesting that one semiperiphery
rises at the cost of the other [Arrighi G. et al. (1991), Arrighi G. et al.
(1996c), Arrighi G., Hamashita T. and Selden M. (Eds.)(2003), Chase-Dunn Ch.
K. and Hall Th. D. (1997), Inglehart R. and Carballo M. (1997), Martin W. and
Wallerstein I. (Eds.)(1990), Tausch A. (1993), Vaeyrynen R. (1997)].
In general terms, we observe today high levels of MNC penetration in the
“dominion economies” like Australia and Canada, in Western Europe, in some
parts of Eastern Europe, in Central Asia, other parts of the former USSR, in many
parts of Latin America, Southern and Western Africa, in Egypt, in Tunisia, and in
China and Southeast Asia:
MNC penetration received a vast attention in the published titles of the
comparative research literature of the last three decades, among them Bailey P.;
Parisotto A. and Renshaw G. (1993), Bornschier V. (1976), Bornschier V. and
Heintz P., reworked and enlarged by Th. H. Ballmer - Cao and J. Scheidegger
(1979), Bornschier V. et al. (1980), Dixon C. J., Drakakis-Smith D. and Watts H.
D. (1986), Gosh P. K. (1984), International Labor Office and United Nations
Centre on Transnational Corporations (1988), International Labour Office (2000),
Jenkins R. (1987), Nollert M. (2005), Robinson R. D. (1987), Twomey M. J.
(1993), United Nations Centre on Transnational Corporations (1983), United
Nations Conference on Trade and Development (current issues), and
Wheelwright T. (2001). While different authors disagree on the direction of the
influence of MNC penetration on the human condition, they’d all underline the
strong influence of MNC penetration on employment, economic growth, income
distribution and overall development.
Foreign saving, for its turn, is strongest in many parts of Latin America,
Southern Africa, in the “new Europe” and in China and in several countries of
Southeast Asia.
During the 1990s, penetration by transnational capital dramatically increased in
many parts of Europe (especially in what was described by Donald Rumsfeld 12 ,
12 See also: http://www.rferl.org/nca/features/2003/01/24012003172118.asp
Arno Tausch, Christian Bischof, Tomz Kastrun, Karl Mueller 120