Empire (The political order of globalization)

Author: (USA) Hart, (Italy) Negri, translated by Yang Jianguo and Fan Yiting
Publisher:
Publish Date: 2005-01-01
Features: Right before our eyes, the empire is growing and taking shape. Boundless and endless, this is the new political order of globalization—a new form of sovereignty. From postmodernism to modernity, from imperialism to empire, will humanity in the new century usher in a utopian era of peace and prosperity or face oppression and constraints? The key to the future lies in the interaction between the empire and its resistance forces. The imperialism we know may no longer exist, but the empire remains intact. In this innovative and bold work, Michael Hardt and Antonio Negri claim that the empire is the new political order of globalization. The Empire is also a utopian meditation on political philosophy, a new Manifesto of the Communist Party. Its vision transcends the exploitation and control systems in the current world order, exploring an alternative political paradigm—the foundation of a truly global democratic society. Since its publication, the book has been translated into over 20 languages and has been hailed as the best-selling intellectual book of the 21st century, sparking much controversy and discussion on globalization. Experts say that since The Empire was published, reading, translating, discussing, and critiquing The Empire have become a major event in the global left and right academic circles. For readers interested in understanding contemporary academic trends, this book is a must-read. The empire is materializing before our eyes. Over the past few decades, as colonialism has been abandoned and the Soviet Union's barrier to the capitalist world market has finally collapsed, we have witnessed the irresistible and irreversible globalization of economic and cultural exchange. With the formation of global markets and production lines, the order of globalization, a new logic and structure of rules, in short, a new form of sovereignty, is emerging. The empire is a political subject that effectively controls these global flows; it is the highest power governing the world. Many believe that the globalization of capitalist production and exchange means that economic relations are becoming increasingly autonomous, detached from political control, and as a result, political power is declining. Some claim that this new era is a liberation of capitalist economies, freed from the restrictions and distortions imposed upon them by political forces. Others, however, lament this era, viewing it as the closure of the institutional pathways through which workers and citizens could influence or question the ruthless logic of capitalist profit. Indeed, alongside the process of globalization, the sovereignty of the nation-state, though still effective, has been steadily declining. The main factors of production and exchange—money, technology, labor, goods—increasingly cross borders, making it harder for nation-states to regulate these flows and impose their authority on the economy. Even the most dominant states are no longer considered supreme authorities, whether within or beyond their own borders. However, the decline of nation-state sovereignty does not mean that "sovereignty" in the literal sense has declined across the entire contemporary transformation. Throughout this period, political control, state functions, and management mechanisms have continued to govern the production and exchange of economic and social life. Our fundamental assumption is that sovereignty has taken on a new form, composed of a series of national and supranational bodies integrated under a single logic of rule. This new global form of sovereignty is what we call the empire.