POLSCI 1G06 Lecture Notes - Lecture 10: De Facto Currency, Military Budget
19 Dec 2016
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Thursday, March 31, 2016
Political Science Lecture- Hegemony
Hegemony
Recall our lecture on Globalization from last semester
•What accounts for the fact that the late 19th and late 20th/early 21st century international systems
appear to be similar on so many levels?
•Is there some common cause that can explain why trade, investment, migration - all the features that we
normally take to be globalization –expanded at both points in time?
•And why the earlier period of late 19th/early 20th century “globalization” collapsed?
One possible explanation: Hegemonic Stability Theory
•According to the theory
•One common feature of both periods of time is that the international system was dominated by one state
that had an overwhelming advantage in power over all other states
•Both eras have states that are Hegemonic
•Thus we see high levels of international openness during the period of British Dominance in the 19th
century
•Britain was the dominant economic and political power of the 19th century international system
•Once Britain was the world’s most powerful state it began to push forward a project of freeing trade
•However, once its preponderance began to decline (relatively speaking) the international economy
seized up and the international system descended into war
•Extending this correlation to the present, high levels of international openness appear to correspond
with the American international dominance that began in the mid-20th century
•With the rise of the American hegemony the international order stabilized, and a trade and rule-based
international order (“globalization”) began again
•If you want to understand stability in an international organization you have to look at the stability of all
the states
What is the status of US Hegemony?
The extent of US power along 4 different axis (see Michael Mann from whom this schema is derived):
1. Economic Power
•There are several aspects of the American Economy that appear to give it an unparalleled supremacy in
the international system
A) The American economy is the largest in the world
•Weighted by exchange rates, the US economy at over $17 Trillion is almost 2x the size of its closest
competitor state
!1
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