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Centro Argentino de Estudios Internacionales / Entelequia. Revista Interdisciplinar
This process – just as the contradictory effects of modernity described above - ,
well explains the crisis in many parts of the Middle East. Several Muslim
countries are not in crisis, because they are Muslim, but because they suffer
from the general contradictions of the modernization process, and because they
have a low comparative international price level or – if you wish – they suffer
from unequal exchange. Our following maps show the dramatic world shifts in
price levels relative to the United States in recent years, and support our
hypothesis that largely unequal exchange (or neo-liberal price reform
strategies), are to blame for many of the present ills of the Muslim world.
Contrary to what European policy makers expected with their Eurostat
politically binding price level indicator, which is, after all, one of their 14
main Lisbon targets, the United States as the Lisbon competition country was
a high price region throughout much of the late 1990s and the early 2000s.
In 1998, and in comparison to the US, Canada and Australia, much of Europe
was still a high-price region, while the Muslim countries were all low-price
regions:
Map 2: Comparative price levels (US=100) in the world system, 1998
comp. price levels, 1998
US = 100
148 bis 159 (1)
133 bis 148 (3)
118 bis 133 (5)
103 bis 118 (7)
88 bis 103 (7)
73 bis 88 (7)
58 bis 73 (19)
43 bis 58 (27)
28 bis 43 (47)
13 bis 28 (38)
Legend: “bis” is the shorthand for “ranging from” “to”. Countries marked in green color:
missing values
Arno Tausch, Christian Bischof, Tomz Kastrun, Karl Mueller 153