Abstract
The decline of the “West” and the loss of U.S. global hegemony is accompanied by a three-sided debate. Some scholars have argued that emerging powers in the Global South will succeed the United States and assume a hegemonic role in the world-economy. They argue that China or an alliance of semi-peripheral states in the South will dominate capitalist or post-capitalist cycles of accumulation in the future. Other scholars rather think that China and other emerging states will find it difficult to catch up and assume a hegemonic role. This paper discusses the consequences of decline for the West and describes three possible western responses to its global economic and hegemonic decline: Resisting Decline—The West will seek to maintain its claim to lead by mobilizing defensive and aggressive military forces, searching for new alliances and partnerships, undermining old and new competitors; Suffering (Semi-) Peripheralization—The West will surrender control of global commodity chains, which will move to the new cores, a development that will contribute to social polarization and the precarization of labour-relations in the old core; Accepting Re-regionalization/Provincialization—The West will accept the loss of hegemony and become just another “province” of the world.
Highlights
Some scholars argue that emerging powers in the Global South will succeed the United States and assume a hegemonic role in the world-economy
Prospects for the West: Three Alternative Options When figuring out alternative scenarios, one must keep in mind that we speak of ongoing processes that depend on social, political and economic framing; they represent different politica l projects responding to challenges of decline with regard to all dimensions of hegemonic power
Economic Subsidiarity & Hegemonic Transformation Economic subsidiarity is a key concept for grassroot, anti-systemic social movements that want to create participatory global integration (Hofbauer and Komlosy 1998)
Summary
Some scholars argue that emerging powers in the Global South will succeed the United States and assume a hegemonic role in the world-economy. The outsourcing of western manufacuting to cheaper production sites in the Global South contributged to the rise of “Newly Industrializing Countries.” outsourcing was designed to overcome the profit squeeze of the 1970s, it contributed to the decline of old industrial core regions, which were characterized by structural unemployment, population loss, and social despair.
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