Includes bibliographical references and index.

Unreal and unflat worlds -- Interpreting economic growth and development -- Exploring the North-South gap longitudinally -- Geo-economic limits on technological diffusion -- Limits on globalization processes -- Southern debt crises -- Growth and conflict -- Southern democracy in the long run -- Uneven growth processes and prospects.

Using a world systems approach and developing a theoretical analysis that builds on the leadership long-cycle approach to global international political economy, this book examines the issues of global inequality. The authors focus on the issues of economic growth, technological diffusion, debt, North-South conflict, democratisation and globalization, and demonstrate how and why the cleavages that have characterized the global North and South in the past and present are growing more acute. The book will be of interest to students and scholars of international political economy, globalisation, international trade and development.