All these premises having, as I think, been clearly made out, it is impossible that the rulers now on earth should make any benefit, or derive any the least shadow of authority from that, which is held to be the fountain of all power, Adam's private dominion and paternal jurisdiction; so that he that will not give just occasion to think that all government in the world is the product only of force and violence, and that men live together by no other rules but that of beasts, where the strongest carries it, and so lay a foundation for perpetual disorder and mischief, tumult, sedition and rebellion, (things that the followers of that hypothesis so loudly cry out against) must of necessity find out another rise of government, another original of political power, and another way of designing and knowing the persons that have it, than what Sir Robert Filmer hath taught us.

Two Treatises of Government.

The four Visegrad states — Poland, the Czech Republic, Slovakia (until 1993 Czechoslovakia) and Hungary — form a compact area between Germany and Austria in the west and the states of the former USSR in the east. They are bounded by the Baltic in the north and the Danube river in the south. They are cut by the Sudeten and Carpathian mountain ranges, which divide Poland off from the other states. Poland is an extension of the North European plain and like the latter is drained by rivers that flow from south to north west — the Oder, the Vlatava and the Elbe, the Vistula and the Bug. The Danube is the great exception, flowing from its source eastward, turning through two 90-degree turns to end up in the Black Sea, forming the barrier and often the political frontier between central Europe and the Balkans. Hungary to the east of the Danube is also an open plain. The region is historically and culturally part of western Europe, but its eastern Marches now represents a vital strategic zone between Germany and the core of the European Union to the west and the Russian zone to the east.

Economy and Society

The East Asian miracle: Economic growth and public policy: By the World Bank. (New York: Oxford University Press for the World Bank, 1993. 389 pp. $19.95, paper.)

This paper presents systematic empirical evidence for the financialization of the US economy in the post-1970s period. While numerous researchers have noted the increasing salience of finance, there have been few systematic attempts to consider what this shift means for the nature of the economy, considered broadly. In large part, this omission reflects the considerable methodological difficulties associated with using national economic data to assess the rise of finance as a macro-level phenomenon shaping patterns of accumulation in the US economy. The paper develops two discrete measures of financialization and applies these measures to postwar US economic data in order to determine if, and to what extent, the US economy is becoming financialized. The paper concludes by considering some of the implications of financialization for two areas of ongoing debate in the social sciences: (1) the question of who controls the modern corporation; and (2) the controversy surrounding the extent to which globalization has eroded the autonomy of the state.

The financialization of the American economy

The Tragedy of Great Power Politics

1. Countering the Eurocentric myth of the West: discovering the Oriental West Part I. The East as an Early Developer 2. Islamic and African pioneers: building the global economy in the Afro-Asian Age of Discovery, 500-1500 3. Chinese pioneers: the first industrial miracle and the myth of Chinese isolationism, 1000-1800 4. The East remains dominant: India, Japan and Southeast Asia, 1400-1800 Part II. The West was Last: 5. Inventing Christendom and the Eastern origins of European feudalism 6. The myth of the Italian pioneer 7. The myth of the Vasco de Gama epoch, 1498-1800 Part III. The West as a Late-Developer: 8. The myth of 1492 and the impossibility of America: the Afro-Asian contribution to the catch-up of the West, 1492-1700 9. The Chinese origins of British industrialisation 10. Constructing European racist identity and the invention of the world, 1700-1850 11. War, racist imperialism and the Afro-Asian origins of British industrialisation Part IV. Conclusion: The Oriental West versus the Eurocentric Myth of the West: 12. The twin myths of the Western liberal state and the civilisational divide between East and West, 1500-1900 13. The rise of the Oriental West.

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The Eastern Origins of Western Civilisation

This book, first published in 2000, provides students with an overview of the main theories of the state found in International Relations. Many International Relation scholars are proclaiming the state to be 'dead', while others lament the lack of an adequate theory of the state in International Relations. John Hobson seeks to resolve this confusion by introducing readers to state theory, arguing that existing theories of the state are limited, and proposing a framework based around the 'agent-structure' debate. The book surveys realist, liberal, Marxist, constructivist and neo-Weberian approaches to the state, and places each perspective's view of the state in relation to its theory of International Relations as a whole. It offers readers a unique introduction to state theory in International Relations, and will be of interest to students and scholars of sociology and politics, as well as International Relations.

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The State and International Relations

Conventional wisdom maintains that since 1648 the international system has comprised states-as-like units endowed with Westphalian sovereignty under anarchy. And while radical globalization theorists certainly dispute the centrality of the state in modern world politics, nevertheless most assume that the state retains its sovereignty under globalization. In contrast we argue that hierarchical sub-systems (and hence unlike units) have been common since 1648, and that the international system continues to be characterized by hierarchical (as well as anarchic) relations. The article goes on to reveal the existence of these multiple hierarchic formations and uncovers the differing social logics connected with identity-formation processes that govern their reproduction. Successive religious, racial, socialist and democratic social logics not only constitute their reproduction, but the emergence of new norms, social ideas and identities have to an important extent accounted for the rise and decay of successive ...

The Enduring Place of Hierarchy in World Politics: Tracing the Social Logics of Hierarchy and Political Change:

List of Figures. List of Tables. Preface. 1. Introduction. Part I:. 2. The Rise of Europe I: State Formation and its Legacies, 800--1800. 3. The Rise of Europe II: State--Making and Economy--Formation from 17th to early 20th century. 4. The Rise of European Industrialisation: Britain and Russia, 1700--1913. Part II:. 5. The Rise of East Asia I: States and Markets. 6. The Rise of East Asia II: Governed Interdependence. 7. The Decline of Anglo--American Capitalism. 8. Conclusion. Bibliography. Index.

States and Economic Development: A Comparative Historical Analysis

1. Introduction: constructing Eurocentrism and international theory as Eurocentric construct Part I. 1760-1914: Manifest Eurocentrism and Scientific Racism in International Theory: 2. Eurocentric imperialism: liberalism and Marxism, c.1830-1914 3. Eurocentric anti-imperialism: liberalism, c.1760-1800 4. Racist anti-imperialism: liberalism and cultural-realism, c.1850-1914 5. Racist imperialism: 'racist-realism', liberalism, and socialism, c.1860-1914 Part II. 1914-1945: Manifest/Subliminal Eurocentrism and the High Tide of Scientific Racism in International Theory: 6. Anti-imperialism and the myths of 1919: Eurocentric Marxism and racist cultural-realism, 1914-1945 7. Racist and Eurocentric imperialism: racist-realism, racist-liberalism, and 'progressive' Eurocentric liberalism/Fabianism, 1914-1945 Part III. 1945-1989: Subliminal Eurocentrism in International Theory: 8. Orthodox subliminal Eurocentrism: from classical realism to neorealism, 1945-1989 9. Orthodox subliminal Eurocentrism: neo-liberal institutionalism and the English school, c.1966-1989 10. Critical subliminal Eurocentrism: Gramscianism and world-systems theory, c.1967-1989 Part IV. 1989-2010: Back to the Future of Manifest Eurocentrism in Mainstream International Theory: 11. Imperialist and anti-imperialist Eurocentrism: post-1989 'Western-realism' and the spiritual return to post-1889 racist-realism 12. Imperialist Eurocentrism: post-1989 'Western-liberalism' and the return to post-1830 liberal paternalist Eurocentrism Part V. Conclusion: Mapping the Promiscuous Architecture of Eurocentrism in International Theory, 1760-2010: 13. Constructing civilization: global hierarchy, 'gradated sovereignty' and globalization in international theory, 1760-2010 Bibliography Index.

John M. Hobson

Papers

The Eastern Origins of Western Civilisation

The State and International Relations

The Enduring Place of Hierarchy in World Politics: Tracing the Social Logics of Hierarchy and Political Change:

States and Economic Development: A Comparative Historical Analysis

The Eurocentric Conception of World Politics: Western International Theory, 1760–2010