Slides for paper presented at the annual conference of the World Association for Political Economy (WAPE) hosted by the Geopolitical Economy Research Group (GERG) at the University of Manitoba, Winnipeg, July 2019. Short introductory video is on utube at https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Rt4mWagp58Q&feature=youtu.be

1. Unexplained persistence
Essential facts for a theory of
postcolonial imperialism
© CREATIVE COMMONS LICENSE
ALAN FREEMAN, GEOPOLITICAL ECONOMY RESEARCH GROUP DATA PROJECT,
UNIVERSITY OF MANITOBA
PROJECT AND DATASET: HTTPS://GITHUB.COM/AXFREEMAN/ECONOMIC-HISTORY
RESEARCH GROUP SITE: HTTPS://GEOPOLITICALECONOMY.ORG
PAPERS:HTTPS://GEOPOLITICALECONOMY.ACADEMIA.EDU/ALANFREEMAN

2. Inequality: within nations or between nations?
• Piketty (WID)
• inequality within nations (are some people richer than others?)
• For example, the top 1% of the US earns more than the bottom 50%
• Or, focussing on poverty, bottom 20% earns 1/9 of top 20%
• Milanovic (PovCal);
• inequality regardless of nations
• For example ‘14% of the world population earn less than $1.25 per day’ (MDG)

3. An alternative tradition
• Pritchett (1997): ‘The Great Divergence’
• ‘Richest nation is 56 times richer than the poorest’’ (in 1997)
• Eg: US GDP per capita is $54,602. India is $1,925. US is 28 times richer.
• Kuznets (1958): are some nations richer than others?
• Compares whole ‘First world’ (global North) with whole ‘Third World’
• In 2017 GDP/cap of the North was $46,698. South was $3,616.
• North was 12 times richer
• Note:
• ‘Monetarily effective purchasing power: what you really can spend
• Not the same as PPP; not ‘real GDP’
• These are all relevant – but you can’t buy things with real GDP or PPP
• GDP doesn’t just measure welfare: it includes what a country has available for investment
• The Kuznets measure has been eliminated from the official statistics

4. Why it matters
• Inequality between nations is the major cause of inequality within them
• Depresses wages in the North, raises elite incomes in the South
• It is the main cause of war
• It supports the privileges of the Northern moneyed classes; requires permanent military
suppression.
• It is the main reason working class rights are under constant threat
• The Southern elites continually suppress the resistance of the popular classes
• It is the main cause of poverty
• The single measure that can most rectify poverty is to raise the income level of the whole of the
South.
• It is a major cause of racism
• Neoclassical economics cannot accept the market forces that drive it.
• It therefore racializes the phenomenon
• These are ‘lazy’ people, ‘backward’ nations, ‘underdeveloped’ countries.

5. 0%
2%
4%
6%
8%
10%
12%
14%
16%
18% 1950
1953
1956
1959
1962
1965
1968
1971
1974
1977
1980
1983
1986
1989
1992
1995
1998
2001
2004
2007
2010
2013
2016
Divergence: GDP per capita of the South, except transitional
economies and China, ratio to the North

6. The average income of
the richest 25% of the
South is one tenth that
of the poorest 25% of
the North
Any other fact about
poverty and
inequality pales into
insignificance by
comparison
Inequality between
nations is the Main
causal factor for
inequality within
nations
Yet the agencies have
ceased measuring it
$1,529 $1,925 $3,853
$38,265
$51,746
$72,954
$0
$10,000
$20,000
$30,000
$40,000
$50,000
$60,000
$70,000
$80,000
25% mas bajo Mediano (50%) 25% mas alto
Scale: the elephant in the inequality dining room:
Population-weighted medians and quartiles of GDP per
capita
Sur Norte

7. 0%
2%
4%
6%
8%
10%
12%
14%
16%
18%
1950
1953
1956
1959
1962
1965
1968
1971
1974
1977
1980
1983
1986
1989
1992
1995
1998
2001
2004
2007
2010
2013
2016
Exogenous
Volcker Shock
Debt Crisis
Structural Adjustment
Exogenous effect
of third world
resistance
Endogenous decline
Started at least as early as 1950
Exogenous
Shock Therapy and
collapse of USSR

8. Northern Ideology: why the North thinks it is special
• Free trade ‘looks Good’ from the North
• Is taken to be a recipe for all
• Is the ‘natural’ view of the Northern and Southern elites
• The only possible explanation for the South’s poverty is racial
• This is rooted in colonial history
• The racialization of the North-South relation
• And the geneticization of labour

9. The exception

10. 0%
2%
4%
6%
8%
10%
12%
14%
16%
18%
20%
1952
1955
1958
1961
1964
1967
1970
1973
1976
1979
1982
1985
1988
1991
1994
1997
2000
2003
2006
2009
2012
2015
China GDP per capita, ratio with the South

11. Does the South exist?
• Official Institutions (World Bank, UN, etc) don’t recognise that there is any
such thing as ‘the Third World’ or ‘global South’
• They treat nations as a continuum, from rich to poor.
• They treat small states as ‘countries’
• The UN even classifies the Vatican as a developed country!
• Three of the UN’s ‘developed’ countries are islands with no inhabitants at all.
• Sixteen of the top 25 ‘richest’ South countries have less than a million inhabitants
• The other ‘rich’ South countries are enclaves such as Qatar or Kuwait
• Essentially ‘oil wells with borders’
• Actually there are two completely distinct blocs of countries
• Dispersion analysis shows this
• Regional analysis shows this
• It is clearest when we ask ‘how many people live’ in each type of country

12. $0
$10,000
$20,000
$30,000
$40,000
$50,000
$60,000
- 0.2 0.4 0.6 0.8 1.0 1.2 1.4 1.6
Chart 16: Relation between price level and GDP per capita, 1995
North South

13. How far apart are the regions of the world?
• No region ever rises
above 25% of the
North
• By 2002 no region
was higher than 12%
of the North
• Only the Middle
East and Latin
America ever rise
above 12%
• And their GDP per
capita is only twice
that of the Southern
Average
• For comparison, no
major Northern
country has GDP
per capita less than
8 times the South
0%
5%
10%
15%
20%
25%
30% 1970
1972
1974
1976
1978
1980
1982
1984
1986
1988
1990
1992
1994
1996
1998
2000
2002
2004
2006
2008
2010
2012
2014
2016
Chart 8: GDP per capita of the geo-economic regions of
the South relative to the North
Central Asia East Asia Latin America and Caribbean
Middle East and North Africa Pacific South Asia
Sub-Saharan Africa South Total (excluding Transitional)

14. $0 $5 $10 $15 $20 $25 $30 $35 $40 $45 $50
North
LA and Caribbean
China Mainland
Mid East and N Africa
Central Asia
South Total
East Asia
Pacific
South Asia
Sub-Saharan Africa
Thousands
Chart 12: GDP per capita of major regions of the South and China,
compared with the North

15. $0
$20,000
$40,000
$60,000
$80,000
$100,000
$120,000
Minimum Quartile 1 Quartile 2
(Median)
Quartile 3 Maximum
Chart 28: South maximum, minimum and quartiles

16. 0.0
0.5
1.0
1.5
2.0
2.5
3.0
3.5
1970
1972
1974
1976
1978
1980
1982
1984
1986
1988
1990
1992
1994
1996
1998
2000
2002
2004
2006
2008
2010
2012
2014
2016
Chart 32 South, weighted and unweighted interquartile range
Weighted interquartile Range Unweighted interquartile Range

17. Project and dataset:
https://github.com/axfreeman/Economic-History
Research Group Site:
https://geopoliticaleconomy.org
Papers:
https://geopoliticaleconomy.academia.edu/AlanFree
man