The Neoliberal World Order

Abstract

In Chapter 1, I set out the basic contours of a Gramscian framework for understanding contemporary capitalism. The strength of this framework, I suggested, was that it focused on the social relations of production underpinning current capitalist social reality and drew attention to the political and ideological means by which the dominant classes secure their hegemonic rule. Specifically, I pointed to Gramsci’s analysis of how the dominant classes construct politico-ideological projects he referred to as ‘historic blocs’ in order to rule not only through coercion but also through consent. Such an analysis is especially salient in the current context, because it allows for an examination of the way in which neoliberal social forces have sought to win consent for their ascendancy by constructing a historic bloc at the international level, or what Robert Cox has referred to as a ‘world order.’ Understanding the origins, key features, and consensual nature of this neoliberal world order is thus crucial to any analysis of it and of the resistance that it engenders.