A theory of global capitalism

By William I. Robinson. 2004

401 citations recorded by the source corpus.

In this book, sociologist William Robinson offers a theory of globalization that follows the rise of a new capitalist class - and a new type of state formation. He explains how global capital mobility has allowed capital to reorganize production worldwide in accordance with a whole range of considerations that allow for maximizing profit-making opportunities. This worldwide decentralization and fragmentation of the production process has taken place alongside the centralization of command and control of the global economy in transnational capital. In turn, this economic reorganization finds a political counterpart in the rise of the transnational state. In the future, Robinson argues, hegemony will be exercised not by a particular nation-state but by the new global ruling class who, regardless of their nationality, tend to share similar lifestyles and interact through expanding networks of this transnational state. In this way, the process of globalization is unifying the world into a single mode of production that is increasingly integrating different countries and regions into a new global economy and society. Robinson concludes that, because the new global capitalism is rife with contradictions, the twenty-first century is likely to harbor ongoing conflicts and disputes for control between the new transnational ruling group and the expanding ranks of the poor and the marginalized.

Subfields: Sociology and Political Science

View Paper: https://www.semanticscholar.org/paper/8094f05848dc053fc0f9a08d26b0b06d18021180

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In Sociology and Political Science

Citations in the corpus

Rising powers, global capitalism and liberal global governance: A historical materialist account of the BRICs challenge (2014, neutral): “Beginning in the early 1990s, this provocative literature has argued for the emergence of a world-spanning fraction of capitalists dislodged from national moorings and constituting a new class-for-itself at the global level (Robinson, 2004, 2005; Robinson and Harris, 2000: 22; Sklair, 1997, 2001).”
Does capitalism need the state system? (2007, background): “…Toni Negri, and William Robinson all claim that capitalism is now organized both economically and politically along transnational lines: the conclusion straightforwardly follows that geopolitical conflicts among the leading capitalist states are obsolete (Hardt and Negri 2000, 2004; Robinson 2004).”
The political-economic causes of change in the ecological footprints of nations, 1991-2001: A quantitative investigation (2007, background): “The activities taking place under these conditions are often transnationally organized (e.g., Jorgenson, 2006b; Robinson, 2004), with the majority of exports sent to and consumed by the populations of developed countries with more service-based domestic economies.”
The Secondary Circuit of Capital Reconsidered: Globalization and the U.S. Real Estate Sector1 (2006, background): “…of the nation-state, modern capitalist states continue to be constructed in interaction with the regulation of their economies and with the development of global connections and flows (Braithwaite and Drahos 2000, pp. 475–55l; Hollingsworth and Boyer 1997; Held and McGrew 2002; Robinson 2004).”
Inclusive Economic Sustainability: SDGs and Global Inequality (2020, background): “Concerned about how globalization exacerbates inequality, Robinson [39] emphasizes: “Expanding poverty; inequality, marginality; and deprivation are the dark underside of the global capitalist cornucopia so celebrated by the transnational elite” (p. 168).”
Are the Economy and the Environment Decoupling? A Comparative International Study, 1960–20051 (2012, result): “It is likely that the results of this study are partially attributable to the growth of carbon-intensive manufacturing in less developed countries via the transnationalization of production (Robinson 2004; Mahutga and Smith 2011).”
The Prerequisites for a Degrowth Paradigm Shift: Insights from Critical Political Economy (2018, background): “Such scholarship has illuminated a variety of important transformations, including the evolution of transnational power relations (Cox, 1987; Ougaard, 2016), profound regulatory changes (Buch-Hansen & Wigger, 2011; Horn, 2012), foreign policy developments (van Apeldoorn & de Graaff, 2015) and – more”