2
I
NTRODUCTION
(F)
No one argues that the recent Internet explosion has been evenly spread across the
planet. However, just how uneven this process has been appears not to have been
discussed. Recent research has begun to examine the political differences in access to the
Internet between rich and poor countries. This paper takes that understanding a step
farther. Historically both the computer industry and the Internet effectively developed
within one country, the United States, and spread from there to its developed allies in
Western Europe and Japan. Even the computer industry in Russia reputedly started
stealing from U.S. corporations early.
Logically this means that there is a possibility that the United States still retains
this central position with the early computer importers following close behind. If this is
correct then there are lurking problems for any action taken to reduce the international
digital divide. According to popular legend in the computing industry there are more
computers inside the borders of the United States than in the rest of the world combined.
Whether this is true or ever was true is unimportant as far as this paper is concerned.
What is true is that the U.S. holds a position of unquestionable power in all of the
industries that are necessary for making the Internet operate correctly. In many of these
industries this position is so strong that it is unquestionably hegemonic. The legend of
the computers gives an idea of the resources available for creating new companies and
resources related to the Internet within the U.S. as compared to the rest of the world.
T
HEORY
Wallerstein proposed a theory wherein a group of countries dominate the world
by having a controlling position within the world economy. That is, these countries have
Convention