Capitalism, Democracy and World Politics in the 21st Century

Abstract

Abstract World Politics is undergoing a range of crucial structural changes in the 21st century. The relationship between the states system that evolved since the Peace of Westphalia in 1648 and became predominant in the 19th and 20th centuries is being increasingly challenged in a number of complex ways. The core problématique, as addressed in different ways in these books, is whether states are still predominant hierarchical structures in an anarchical world system – “nodes” or building blocks – as argued in particular by realist and neo-realist theorists exemplified by Kenneth Waltz, or whether they are increasingly criss-crossed and undercut by what are sometimes called “heterarchical” structure and processes. These include macro-, meso-, and mini-hierarchies that are turning states from “proactive” institutions and processes to “reactive” or even or even “residual” ones. The core of these analyses is whether and how states are still the main independent variables in what has been called International Relations or whether and how far they are increasingly dependent variables in a changing World Politics. These books all make interesting and useful contributions to this question.