The Dialectics of Globalization: Economic and Political Conflict in a Transnational World

by Jerry Harris

Combining bold theortical analysis and careful empirical investigation Harris provides a critical framework to understand the political and economic underpinnings of globalization. In an unique historical approach the book examines how the revolution in information technologies and the break-up of the Soviet Union intertwined to present new global opportunities to reorganize capitalism as a unified world system headed by an emerging transnational capitalist class. The book challenges the common view that nation states still define international relations, with the United States as hegemonic leader of the world system. Instead Harris offers a more complex analysis of world affairs that sees the current period as one of transition between nationally based industrial capitalism and a global system based on revolutionary methods of production and new class relationships. He argues this conflict appears in every country as national economies realigned to fit new patterns of world accumulation creating a host of political tensions within and between nations. This analysis is detailed in a distinctive interpretation of the US military/industrial complex, as well as the contemporary class struggles in Germany and the emerging powers of China, India and Brazil. The book concludes by investigating alternative trends which are currently challenging the inequalities of global capitalism, unfolding a fresh approach to the relationship between the state, market and civil society.

285 pages, Paperback

First published November 1, 2006

Reviews

[Joe]

Comment:

What are the consequences of globalization? One of them is that a new Transnational Capitalist Class (TCC) has emerged and that they are now in the process of becoming the new master class. How? By their predatory relationship to the various (dare I say 'mere'?) national capitalist classes! To achieve the new hegemony, the TCC strives to break down all barriers to monetary flow. They are ready to do business anywhere; and are equally ready to leave when it is no longer profitable. The TCC has no loyalty to any state or nation.
Russia and China are doing the most to curtail this. Certainly not in the name of socialism (or capitalism)! They are both trying to keep keep wealth within their country (and thus within the reach of state power, ...and its inevitable extractions). Of course, this process is ongoing, and the closing off of China and Russia to the TCC (2022) hurts (at least temporarily) the TCC. This 'closing off' started off with Trump standing up to China (a policy continued by Biden) and the war in Ukraine with the resulting sanctions on Russia. I often find myself wondering how this plays out.
An interesting take on contemporary history!