Individualism, Collectivism, Economic Culture, And Historical Capitalism

This article summarises key concepts in Immanuel Wallerstein's book "Historical Capitalism" related to the role of the cultural dimension of individualism-collectivism. These include the societal developments needed for the early formation of the labor market, the social construction of ethnical identities and the gradual assimilation of peripheral regions into the capitalism's labor force in order to counter the rise of labor income in countries of the core. According to the author, traditional kinds of division of labor between ethnic groups, family members and age horizontals are being intentionally brought to life to control the pace of proletization as quasi-proletarian ways of living require only minimal labor wages. At the same time in the ideological realm capitalism's development is usually presented as closely intertwined with modernism and science's progress, opposed to traditional, non-rational ways, but a number of traditions can be shown to have actually co-emerged with historical capitalism and not pre-dated it. This process is accompanied by the instalment of an universalistic and individualistic progressivist worldview among the intelligentsia classes, fostering the belief in competition and meritocracy, which has to enable the peaceful functioning of the tightly interconnected global capitalist system. In other words, capitalism's use of culture and ideology is a prerequisite for its spread and efficiency.