Customer Reviews

The Spiral of Capitalism and Socialism: Toward Global Democracy (Power and Social Change--Studies in Political Sociology)

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An outstanding work which argues convincingly that current problems of the globe can and must be solved in the spirit of global democracy. The authors understand global democracy as global social democracy. In a masterful syntesis of a vast array of literature they give a new meaning to the expressions "freedom from oppression" and "freedom from want". A major problem of contemporary international organizations and, indeed, of world society and the world economy is their lack of democratic input and responsibility, according to the authors. The book contains a vision of worldwide democratic socialism which is refreshingly removed from the acrimonies of the Cold War and, instead, is looking toward the future. A splendid publication.

Boswell and Chase Dunn's book is an absolutely important contribution to present-day world systems research and political science in general. At breathtaking visionary power they re-interpret the course of world history since the beginnings of the capitalist world system to the revolution of 1989 and beyond. Where others speculate on the nature of the future of the international system, the authors present solid scholary knowledge, based on their own research and on that of others, masterly presented to the reader. Their vision of long Kondratieff cycles, hegemonial powers, revolutions, and the social democratic possibilities of changes will dominate the debate for many years to come. The main political conclusion of their research is: it will be up to the alternative and social democratic forces in Europe to qualitatively and quantitatively shape the chance for a transformation of the world system.

However much I disagree with one point in their analysis - the dating of the Kondratieff cycles from 1689 to 1893 (I rather do not share their Fernand Braudel and Ernest Mandel dating vision, but share Bornschier's scheme here, with the depressions around 1756,1842 and 1884), this book is one of the major contributions to world systems research in our days.