Political Economy of World-Systems 2002 Conference

Riverside, California

Abstract

The Autumn of World Hegemonies

Giovanni Arrighi
Department of Sociology, Johns Hopkins University
arrighi@jhu.edu

Beverly Silver
Department of Sociology, Johns Hopkins University
silver@jhu.edu

    The Belles Epoques of Declining Hegemons:  One of the greatest difficulties involved in analyzing and monitoring hegemonic transitions under capitalism is that, as a rule, hegemonic crises are followed by a protracted reflation of the wealth, power and prestige of the declining hegemon. Historically, reversals of this kind have lasted for decades rather than years, obscuring the underlying trend of power relations. We call these periods the "autumn" of world hegemonies and claim that the 1980's and 1990's constitute one such period--the "autumn" of US world hegemony.

27th Annual Conference of the Political Economy of World-Systems Spring

Hosted by the Institute for Research on World-Systems at the University of California, Riverside