Semiperiphery, or Perimeter of the Periphery? Auto FDI and Slovakia’s Bratislava-Zilina Corridor

• In Event: 286 - Section on Sociology of Development Roundtable Session (one-hour).
  In Paper Session: Table 04. Trade, Investment and Commodities

Abstract

Since the fall of State Socialism, the world’s largest automakers have established 13 automobile assembly plants in Central Europe. This began in the early 1990s, with Fiat in Poland, Suzuki in Hungary, and Volkswagen in Czechia. The central location of these nations and their skilled, relatively inexpensive labor force made them prime production bases for the export of vehicles to both developed Europe. Although Slovakia missed much of the 1990s boom, it has since flourished, and in 2012 had the highest vehicle output per capita of any country in the world. Melding World Systems Theory with current research on the auto industry in the CE, and utilizing a case study of the Bratislava-Zilina Corridor, this article examines whether or not Automotive Industry related foreign direct invest (i.e., auto FDI) has served to advance Slovakia’s structural position in the globe’s industrial division of labor from periphery to semiperiphery. It contends that while auto FDI has transformed Slovakia’s Bratislava-Zilina Corridor into a major vehicle production zone, and has significantly increased Slovakia’s Gross Domestic Product (GDP) and Gross National Income per capita, the resulting over-dependence on the highly cyclical and ultra-mobile automotive industry has left the region and nation extremely vulnerable to global economic swings. It therefore concludes that although its GDP and income levels suggest that it may be considered a semiperiphery nation, Slovakia’s actual position in the world’s industrial division of labor more closely resembles what Arrighi and Drangel (1986) labeled, the ‘perimeter of the periphery.’

Author

• A.J. Jacobs, East Carolina University