The study of globalization, prominent in all fields of social science, scarcely draws upon the insights generated by the world-systems theory. In this essay, I delineate five key dimensions on which a world-systems approach diverges from a world society approach. When linked together, these five stages offer support for a dependency perspective that was elaborated in the theoretical work underpinning the world-system paradigm. I use the case of Brazil to demonstrate how a consent model, derived from this paradigm, offers a better understanding of the dynamics leading to global convergence than a consensus model derived from a world society paradigm.