122 CHAPTER fouR ■ The InTernaTIonal SySTemrelationship between the advantaged and the disadvantaged, empowering the rich and
disenfranchising the weak. Marxists assert that capitalism breeds its own instruments
of domination. These include international institutions whose rules cap i tal ist states
structure to facilitate cap i tal ist pro cesses, multinational corporations whose headquar-
ters are in cap i tal ist states but whose loci of activity are in “dependent areas,” and even
individuals (often leaders) or classes (the national bourgeoisie) residing in weak states
who are co- opted to participate in and perpetuate an economic system that places the
masses in a permanently dependent position.
Radicals believe that the greatest amount of resentment will arise in systems where
the stratification is most extreme. There, the poor are likely to be not only resentful
but also aggressive, in large part because in such systems, the poor have so little to lose by
re sis tance. They want change, but the rich have very little incentive to change their
be hav ior. The call for the New International Economic Order (NIEO) was voiced
by radicals (and some liberal reformers) in the 1970s in most developing countries.
The poorer, developing states of the South, underdogs with a dearth of resources,
sought fundamental changes that would enhance their economic development and
control over their own natu ral resources, thus increasing their power relative to the
North.With a GDP per capita of approximately $3,200, Nigeria is one of the “have- nots” in the radical
understanding of the international system. Despite its wealth of natu ral resources, Nigeria has
been unable to successfully develop out of poverty.ESSIR7_CH04_106_131_11P.indd 122 6/14/16 10:04 AM