Abstract
The concept of uneven and combined development where the interconnectedness and interactions of different societies shape and combine with their internal structures to drive the evolution of comparative development and power is used to examine the drivers of successive phase of global development in the 100 years since 1917. This concept was coined by left-wing theorist and the Soviet Communist party leader Leo Trotsky with the aim of explaining peculiarities of imperialRussia’s development. Currently it is applied for different cases of political and economic development on the global level. The concept of uneven and combined development allows taking into account both intra-state and extra-state factors, including political regimes evolution, international trade dynamics. Most attention is paid to the drivers of secular economic decline in the United States and the Western world, the way it was tempered by a wave of productive and financial globalization that itself permitted the rise of a number of emerging economies with the economic, political and cultural capacity to exploit latecomer advantage and the way the rise of new powers is leading in the direction of a polycentric multi-civilizational world and a possibly more inclusive model of development. To put it simply, the article addresses political economy of global power shifts and their prospects.
Highlights
The concept of uneven and combined development where the interconnectedness and interactions of different societies shape and combine with their internal structures to drive the evolution of comparative development and power is used to examine the drivers of successive phase of global development in the 100 years since 1917
In the last 100 years several fundamental power shifts have occurred. Of these evolutions this article aims to deal with two: (1) the rise and especially the decline of United States (US) hegemony and of the unipolar world established after the collapse of Communism in Eastern Europe and the former Soviet Union; and (2) the current power shift to Eurasia and the global East (Russia, Brazil, South Africa, Indonesia, India, Iran and in particular China) and the re-emergence of a multipolar world respecting civilizational variety
Arrighi argues that the US and its associated capitalist model of development has undergone a transition from a signal to a terminal crisis of hegemony in the face of the rise of an alternative model of development that he calls, after Adam Smith, market society and suggests that this shift prefigures the arrival of a Commonwealth of civilizations
Summary
The concept of uneven and combined development where the interconnectedness and interactions of different societies shape and combine with their internal structures to drive the evolution of comparative development and power is used to examine the drivers of successive phase of global development in the 100 years since 1917. This concept was coined by left-wing theorist and the Soviet Communist party leader Leo Trotsky with the aim of explaining peculiarities of imperial Russia’s development.
Sign-in/Register to view highlights & summary Sign-in/Register to access full text options 
Talk to us
Join us for a 30 min session where you can share your feedback and ask us any queries you have
Schedule a call
