Comparing World-Systems: Concepts and Working Hypotheses

Many recent studies have concluded that societal structures cannot be understood without the consideration of intersocietal interactions. World-system theory helps explain the relationship between intersocietal interactions and the development of national societies in the modern world, but because this theory was constructed primarily for the analysis of the modern world-system, it needs modification to be useful for a broader comparative approach to historical development. This article begins the construction of a more encompassing world-systems theory by proposing empirically grounded concepts and hypotheses for comparative study.