Carrol Cox wrote: > I've read the whole of the Conclusion. It is a magnificent summary of the > world we now live in. "American Empire" is a bit misleading, but then Ellen > Meiksins Wood has already used the correct title for what these authors > describe: The Empire of Capital.
I think there's a difference between "imperialism" and an "empire," though obviously the two are interrelated. Imperialism, to my mind, refers to a social relationship of domination and conquest (and of course, resistance). Capitalist imperialism refers to the "extended reproduction of capital" on a world scale. On the other hand, the concept of an "empire" is on a lower level of abstraction, referring to internal political and economic institutions that preserve imperialism as a coherent or mostly coherent unit and define the nature of its dynamics. In the era of Classic Imperialism (that folks like Bukharin, Lenin, and Luxembourg described), we had a system of competing empires as part of the broader imperialist phenomenon. Now, it's more like there's a single empire -- or at least a single hegemon -- holding imperialism together. Thus, it makes sense to talk about "global capitalism" (imperialism) _and_ the "American Empire." -- Jim Devine / "Segui il tuo corso, e lascia dir le genti." (Go your own way and let people talk.) -- Karl, paraphrasing Dante. _______________________________________________ pen-l mailing list [email protected] https://lists.csuchico.edu/mailman/listinfo/pen-l
