William Robinson

The dynamics of the emerging transnational stage in world capitalism cannot be understood through the blinkers of nation-state-centric thinking. In her study Empire of Capital, Ellen Meiksins Wood exhibits the reification and outdated nation-state-centric thinking that plagues much recent work on world capitalism and US intervention, expressed in the confusing notion of a 'new imperialism'. The overarching problems in Wood's study – and, by extension, in much of the 'new-imperialism' literature – is a reified notion of imperialism, a refusal to draw out the analytical, theoretical, methodological, and epistemological implications of capitalist globalisation, and an incessant reification of the state. Instead of a 'new US empire', the current epoch is best understood as a new transnational phase in the ongoing evolution of world capitalism, characterised in particular by the rise of truly transnational capital, globalised circuits of accumulation, and tran...

By the turn of the 21st century the concept of globalization had earned its place in the social sciences and debate turned more squarely to the theoretical significance of globalization. Yet not all scholars were happy with the notion of globalization. Some claim that is merely a new name for earlier theories and concepts. Among those who reject new paradigmatic thinking on the current age is Immanuel Wallerstein, the world-renowned sociologist and ‘father’ of the world-system paradigm. This article is intended as an appraisal of Wallerstein’s œuvre in the context of the debate on global transformations in the late 20th and early 21st centuries and from the vantage point of the present author’s own critical globalization perspective. The first three parts summarize and assess Wallerstein’s theoretical system and his many contributions to macro, historical and comparative sociology, to development studies and international political economy. The fourth discusses Wallerstein’s assessm...

The class and social structure of developing nations has undergone profound transformation in recent decades as each nation has incorporated into an increasingly integrated global production and financial system. National elites have experienced a new fractionation. Emergent transnationally-oriented elites grounded in globalized circuits of accumulation compete with older nationally-oriented elites grounded in more protected and often state-guided national and regional circuits. Nationally-oriented elites are often dependent on the social reproduction of at least a portion of the popular and working classes for the reproduction of their own status, and therefore on local development processes however so defined, whereas transnationally-oriented elites are less dependent on such local social reproduction. The shift in dominant power relations from nationally- to transnationally-oriented elites is reflected in a concomitant shift to a discourse from one that defines development as nat...

World capitalism has been undergoing a process in recent decades of profound restructuring and expansion.  Neo-liberalism has affected and reshaped all the institutions of global society, including education.  As globalization has advanced there has been a dual process in the subordination of global labor.  On the one hand, a mass of humanity has been dispossessed, marginalized, and locked out of productive participation in the global economy.  On the other hand, another mass of humanity has been incorporated or reincorporated into capitalist production under new, precarious, highly exploitative capital-labor arrangements, often engaged in deskilled work that requires little more than basic numeracy and literacy skills.  Transnational capital faces the challenge of imposing a system of global education that imparts just enough skills to supply the labor needed for the farms, factories, and offices of the global economy and at the same time transmits a political and ideological content that compels conformity and undercuts critical thinking.  The coupling of educational systems with those of mass social control appears to be reaching depths hitherto unseen.

The state-centrism and the nation-state/inter-state framework that informs much theorization and analysis of world politics, political economy, and class structure is ever more incongruent with 21st century world developments.  An epochal shift is underway to a new phase in the ongoing and open-ended evolution of world capitalism, global capitalism, characterized by the rise of truly transnational capital and the integration of every country into a new globalized system of production and finance, a transnational capitalist class as would be global ruling class, and transnational state apparatuses.  Realist approaches to international relations, global political economy and world politics cannot account for 21st century world developments, burdened as they are by a nation-state framework of analysis and a state-centrism that reifies and fetishizes the state.  The anomalies in traditional approaches to world politics and economics demonstrate the need for a Khunian paradigm shift.  Competition among capitals and international conflicts are endemic to the system yet competition takes on new forms in the age of globalization not necessarily expressed as national rivalry.  Global capitalism is in crisis.  The more enlightened strata of the transnational elite want stronger transnational state apparatuses in order to cement the rule of the transnational capitalist class, bring a measure of regulation and governance from above, and stabilize the crisis-ridden system.  A global rebellion against the transnational capitalist class is underway but popular, working class, and leftist struggles face many challenges.

We are in the throes of a transition to a qualitatively new stage of world capitalism. Its essence is the emergence of truly transnational capital, a transnational capitalist class (TCC) made up of the owners and managers of transnational corporations, and transnational state apparatuses through which the TCC attempts to exercise global political authority. This corporate-driven globalization has brought a vast new round of global enclosures as hundreds of millions of people have been uprooted and converted into surplus humanity. The extreme global inequality that has resulted erodes social cohesion and fuels unrest. In response, the more enlightened members of the transnational elite clamor for a powerful transnational state to resolve the ecological, social, economic, and political crises of global capitalism, but instead a global war economy and a global police state may be in the offing. If we are to avoid a civilizational collapse and reach a Great Transition, we will need an accurate reading of the new global capitalism to guide our social practice.

... CAMBRIDGE STUDIES IN INTERNATIONAL RELATIONS 48 William I. Robinson Promoting polyarchy Globalization, US intervention, and hegemony 47 Roger Spegele Political realism in international theory 46 Thomas J. Biersteker and Cynthia Weber (eds.) State sovereignty ...

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