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A Theory of Global Capitalism: Production, Class and State in a Transnational World, by William I. Robinson. Baltimore, Maryland: John Hopkins University Press, 2004. $46.95. Pp. 200.
William Robinson has added another important book to his growing body of work. His new effort, A Theory of Global Capitalism, is a powerful articulation of the underlying structural dynamics of, what Robinson argues is, a new globalist stage of world capitalism. Unlike his previous work on particular countries and regions, this book has a larger canvas, developing a historical materialist framework from which to view change and conflict in today's world.
Robinson focuses on three key issues: transnational production, transnational capitalists, and the transnational state. The first chapter covers the periodization of capitalism. Globalization is a new epoch characterized by the rise of transnational capital. Information technologies gave capitalism a newfound mobility in both production and finance that allowed the internal logic of accumulation to unfold in distinctly new ways. These changes led to key differences between the old world economy and the new global economy. The former was based on national economies with different modes of production, externally linked through trade and finance. But today's world system is based on "the rise of globalized circuits of production and accumulation" (11). This includes the "fragmentation and decentralization of complex production chains . . . with the centralization of command and control of the global economy in transnational capital" (15). Transnational corporations coordinate this vast network of relationships, assuming a hegemonic position in the world economy from which they dictate global patterns of accumulation. Robinson goes on to detail the empirical data that support his argument, with sharp attention to the growth of foreign direct investment.
Chapter 2 covers transnational capitalist class (TCC) theory. The TCC is not merely a convergence of national bourgeoisies working through a set of international coalitions. Rather,...