EmpireImperialism as we knew it may be no more, but Empire is alive and well. It is, as Michael Hardt and Antonio Negri demonstrate in this bold work, the new political order of globalization. It is easy to recognize the contemporary economic, cultural, and legal transformations taking place across the globe but difficult to understand them. Hardt and Negri contend that they should be seen in line with our historical understanding of Empire as a universal order that accepts no boundaries or limits. Their book shows how this emerging Empire is fundamentally different from the imperialism of European dominance and capitalist expansion in previous eras. Rather, today's Empire draws on elements of U.S. constitutionalism, with its tradition of hybrid identities and expanding frontiers. Empire identifies a radical shift in concepts that form the philosophical basis of modern politics, concepts such as sovereignty, nation, and people. Hardt and Negri link this philosophical transformation to cultural and economic changes in postmodern society--to new forms of racism, new conceptions of identity and difference, new networks of communication and control, and new paths of migration. They also show how the power of transnational corporations and the increasing predominance of postindustrial forms of labor and production help to define the new imperial global order. More than analysis, Empire is also an unabashedly utopian work of political philosophy, a new Communist Manifesto. Looking beyond the regimes of exploitation and control that characterize today's world order, it seeks an alternative political paradigm--the basis for a truly democratic global society. |
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accumulation American analysis Antonio Negri articulated become biopolitical biopower boundaries capital capitalist capitalist development capitalist production central century civil colonial command communication conflict constitution construction contemporary context continually corruption crisis critique cultural defined Deleuze deterritorializing dialectic disciplinary dominant economic effective Empire Étienne Balibar Europe European expansion exploitation fact Félix Guattari forces Fordist Foucault Fredric Jameson functions fundamental Gilles Deleuze global human hybrid ideology immanent immaterial labor imperialist juridical labor power liberation logic machine Marx Michael Hardt Minnesota Press mobility modern sovereignty movements multitude nation-states networks ontological organization paradigm passage perspective plane of immanence political populations posed postmodern postmodernist proletariat recognize regime relations relationship revolution revolutionary singular social society sovereign space structures struggles subjectivity subordinated subsumption supranational surplus value terrain territories theory tion tradition trans transcendent transformation U.S. Constitution United University Press virtual workers world market York