The International Division of Labor (DIT) is the concept used to describe the way in which different production processes occur in countries and economic areas.
Each territory has a specific form of production and development, creating divisions and hierarchy between different countries. This context creates a separation between the developed countries that make up the economic centers and the underdeveloped, peripheral countries.
Based on the DIT, each country plays a specific role, has a specialization, which makes it more, or less, economically dependent on the global scenario.
Table on DIT throughout history:
| Developed countries | Underdeveloped countries | |
|---|---|---|
| commercial capitalism | metropolises: manufactured products. | colonies: exploration of precious metals, spices and slave trade. |
|
Industrial Capitalism (Classic DIT) |
industrialized countries: industrialized products. | non-industrialized countries: raw materials and primary goods. |
|
Financial Capitalism (New DIT) |
Developed countries: investments, loans and products of high technological complexity. |
Underdeveloped countries: primary products, low-complexity industrialized products and low-cost labor. Developing countries: interest, profits and industrialized products. |
The new DIT
From the second half of the 20th century onwards, a process of industrialization took place in many parts of the globe, the so-called "late industrialization" and the so-called "developing" countries emerged. Among the countries that industrialized late is Brazil.
The new DIT is more complex, there is a certain decentralization, some countries assume a position intermediary between the developed that form the great traditional centers and the countries peripherals.
However, there is the maintenance of inequalities between technology producing and consuming countries. This is due to the development of new technologies in industrialized countries.
From the advent of globalization, technical advances in communications and transport allowed for a major change in production methods.
Developed countries invest in research, in highly qualified labor and outsource production to underdeveloped countries. In these places, high unemployment rates and low wages reduce the costs of the production process.
Thus, a new mode of production emerges that differs from the traditional DIT. With the expansion of multinational companies, many underdeveloped countries also start to supply industrialized products, but without mastering the technologies necessary for this type of production, which continue to be controlled by the countries of the centers economical.
The traditional DIT
The traditional form of DIT developed from the 16th century onwards, during the period of great navigations and colonization. Thus, it assumes a strong division between the production of metropolises and the extraction of products in colonized territories.
In the metropolises (center), manufacturing and commerce were developed based on the activity of free or independent workers. In the colonies (periphery), exploration and extraction of raw materials were carried out with the use of slave labor.
From the 18th century onwards, the industrialization process in Europe began, the proportion of salaried workers with the objective of filling factory jobs increased.
While in the colonies, the work of enslaved labor remains, aimed at the production of primary goods, especially agricultural, destined for the foreign market.
The first half of the 20th century marks the DIT among developed (industrialized) countries: the United States, Japan and the countries of Europe.
The rest of the (peripheral) countries, still destined to the production of primary goods, are marked by a slight change with the emergence of salaried work.
This is how DIT stands out, based on the specialization of production in different countries, its performance and relevance to the global economy.
Thus, as developed countries occupy different places in the economic context, peripheral countries, from the 1950s onwards, they went through a process of industrialization that was also unequal, called the "new DIT".
Other texts that can help to understand better:
- Social Division of Labor
- Stages of Capitalism
- commercial capitalism
- Financial Capitalism
- Informational Capitalism
- Human Sciences and its Technologies: Enem