Showing papers in "Review of International Political Economy in 1998"
TL;DR: The authors examines the changing relationship between global cities and territorial states in contemporary Europe, and outlines some of its implications for the geography of world capitalism in the late twentieth century, and argues that new theories and representations of spatial scale and its social production are needed to grasp the rapidly changing political geography of late twentieth-century capitalism.
Abstract: This article examines the changing relationship between global cities and territorial states in contemporary Europe, and outlines some of its implications for the geography of world capitalism in the late twentieth century. Most accounts of global cities are based upon a ‘zero-sum’ conception of spatial scale that leads to an emphasis on the declining power of the territorial state: as the global scale expands, the state scale is said to contract. By contrast, I view globalization as a highly contradictory reconeguration of superimposed spatial scales, including those on which the territorial state is organized. The state scale is not being eroded, but rearticulated and reterritorialized in relation to both sub- and supra-state scales. The resultant, re-scaled coneguration of state territorial organization is provisionally labeled a ‘glocal’ state. As nodes of accumulation, global cities are sites of post-Fordist forms of global industrialization; as coordinates of state territorial power, global cities are local-regional levels within a larger, reterritorialized matrix of increasingly ‘glocalized’ state institutions. State re-scaling is a major accumulation strategy through which these transformed ‘glocal’ territorial states attempt to promote the global competitive advantage of their major urban regions. Global city formation and state re-scaling are therefore dialectically intertwined moments of a single dynamic of global capitalist restructuring. These arguments are illustrated through a discussion of the interface between global cities and territorial states in contemporary Europe. A concluding section argues that new theories and representations of spatial scale and its social production are needed to grasp the rapidly changing political geography of late twentieth-century capitalism.
605 citations
TL;DR: In this article, the authors argue that a perspective which starts from the role of the state in promoting capital accumulation can much better explain the content both of state policies and of particular international agreements.
Abstract: This article challenges accounts of global environmental politics which come from a liberal institutionalist position and focus on the development of international regimes. We argue that a perspective which starts from the role of the state in promoting capital accumulation can much better explain the content both of state policies and of particular international agreements. We first outline the way that fossil fuel companies have been able to secure their interests in state policies on global warming. We then develop the argument that their ability to do this is best explained in terms of the structural power of capital, deriving from the role of the state within capitalist societies. Finally, we suggest that this may also be producing transformations within global warming politics, as insurance companies in particular become involved. Such involvement, particularly given the heightened power of finance under conditions of globalization, suggests the possibility of constructing coalitions which may turn ...
246 citations
TL;DR: However, the extent of such internationalization is less than often claimed, especially when compared to the late nineteenth century, and the processes by which it will lead to such convergence remain obscure as discussed by the authors.
Abstract: The increasing internationalization of economic activities in the late twentieth century has encouraged the belief that a new form of cross-national economic organization is becoming established and replacing existing forms of capitalism. Both the intensification of international competition and growth of managerial coordination across borders are seen as generating the convergence of currently separate business systems. However, the extent of such internationalization is less than often claimed, especially when compared to the late nineteenth century, and the processes by which it will lead to such convergence remain obscure. Since the different varieties of capitalist economic organization in Europe, Asia and the Americas developed over some time interdependently with dominant societal institutions, the ways in which they change as a result of internationalization are path dependent and reflect their historical legacies as well as current institutional linkages. Qualitative changes in central business system characteristics, such as ownership relations, non-ownership coordination and employment policies, are therefore unlikely to be rapid or to result solely from internationalization. Furthermore, the ways in which firms from different business systems internationalize reflect their varied natures and strategies which are unlikely to alter greatly unless key institutions alter. If multinational firms do develop different characteristics from national competitors, their impact on their domestic and host business systems will likewise depend on a number of strong conditions. Similarly, the establishment of a distinctive and dominant 'global' business system is only likely in very restrictive circumstances.
203 citations
TL;DR: In this paper, the authors examined the role of tourism services in the globalization of services and to what extent services suggest the need to refine the Global Commodity Chains (GCC) approach.
Abstract: Global commodity chains (GCC) present a fairly new and innovative approach for understanding the prospects for development among Third World countries within a larger environment characterized by globalization. To date, most research using the framework concentrates on the changing organization of manufacturing activities and helps to explain why the chains touch down where they do. This article concentrates on two related questions: what can commodity chains tell us about the globalization of services and to what extent do services suggest the need to refine the GCC approach? Both questions are examined by focusing upon tourism, the largest service activity in the world. Concentrating on hotels and airlines, the article demonstrates that tourism services have become internationalized in a manner unlike manufacturing activities. Most notably, organizational or governance structures do not conform to either buyer-driven or producer-driven models frequently predicted by GCC analysis. The article concludes that while commodity chain analysis is useful for examining the political economy of tourism, especially in highlighting power and exchange relationships, it must be broadened to 'account' fully for the unique organization of the global tourism industry.
151 citations
Abstract: This article discusses perspectives of local agency in the age of the world city. It presents a brief critique of the debate on globalization and posits that globalization makes states. This includes a discussion of the local state as a complex creature of state and civil society, of the regulatory power of the urban and of the world city as a site of the emergence of the post-national state. While it can be argued that globalization hollows out the state and helps facilitate the replacement of state by non-state institutions in the market or civil society, it also creates new forms of states. The state does not wither away but is rather reincarnated in a plethora of forms on many socio-spatial scales. Globalization makes states but these differ from the ones we used to know. This article concentrates on those new forms of governance that occur on the urban level, particularly in so-called world or global cities. It makes the case for the recognition of the urban as a relevant site of the political in the...
121 citations
TL;DR: In this paper, the authors argue that institutional investors possess specific characteristics which are serving to reproduce neoliberal restructuring in both coercive and consensual ways, and that the rise of institutional investors has led to a centralization of investment decision making and to a situation in which neoliberalism is being reproduced in a coercive fashion.
Abstract: Despite their increasing prominence within the contemporary financial system, the collective impact of institutional investors (i.e. mutual, pension and hedge funds) and, in particular, their role in the reproduction of neoliberalism has received little attention among scholars. The argument of this article is that a focus on institutional investors is necessary in order to develop a more complete understanding of the shift towards neoliberal social relations of production. More precisely, it argues that institutional investors possess specific characteristics which are serving to reproduce neoliberal restructuring in both coercive and consensual ways. In terms of the former, it argues that the rise of institutional investors has led to a centralization of investment decision making and to a situation in which neoliberalism is being reproduced in a coercive fashion. In terms of consent, this article argues that the specific characteristics of institutional investors are serving to link a broad range of in...
95 citations
TL;DR: The authors argues that the coordination of economic institutions is occurring simultaneously at various spatial levels (e.g. subnational region, nation-state, transnational region and global) and that the institutional arrangements which at one time were congruent at the national levels are now more dispersed at multiple spatial levels.
Abstract: This article argues that the coordination of economic institutions is occurring simultaneously at various spatial levels (e.g. subnational region, nation-state, transnational region, global). The institutional arrangements which at one time were congruent at the national levels are now more dispersed at multiple spatial levels. Impressive economic performance now requires that economic actors be well coordinated in all spatial areas simultaneously. In short, actors are increasingly nested in institutional arrangements which are linked at all levels. The parts of each system have become far more interdependent than was the case only two decades ago, and the increasingly complex distribution of power and resources across geographical levels is further evidence of how economic institutions have become nested in multiple worlds. This perspective about the diffusion of power suggests that there is slowly evolving a set of institutions for the governance of societies at multiple levels, but this process is poorly understood and its long-term consequences are rarely discussed. The future is very much open, but a perspective on long-term historical trends suggests that one of the major challenges of our time is to create a new theory of governance involving institutions and local territories nested in a world of unprecedented complexity, one in which subnational regions, nation-states, continental and global regimes are all intricately linked.
93 citations
TL;DR: The IMF's high profile coincides with the spread of the deflationary and inflationary effects of the financial collapse on the real economy of the region, making the period potentially explosive as discussed by the authors.
Abstract: Seven months after the outbreak of the Asian financial crisis, the International Monetary Fund (IMF) moved into the eye of the economic typhoon ravaging the region. The Fund's high profile coincides with the spread of the deflationary and inflationary effects of the financial collapse on the real economy of the region, making the period potentially explosive.
74 citations
TL;DR: In this article, a new analytical framework for capital as a crystallization of power is proposed, based on Thorstein Veblen's separation of industry from business and on Lewis Mumford's dichotomy between democratic and authoritarian techniques.
Abstract: Existing theories of capital, neo-classical as well as Marxist, are anchored in the material sphere of production and consumption. This article offers a new analytical framework for capital as a crystallization of power. The relative nature of power requires accumulation to be measured in differential, not absolute, terms. For absentee owners, the main goal is not to maximize profits, but rather to 'beat the average' and exceed the 'normal rate of return'. The theoretical framework builds on Thorstein Veblen's separation of industry from business and on Lewis Mumford's dichotomy between democratic and authoritarian techniques. Extending their contributions, we argue that capital is a business, not an industrial category, a human mega-machine rather than a material artefact. Indeed, it is the social essence of capital which makes accumulation possible in the first place. Capital measures the present value of future business earnings, and these depend not on the productivity of industry as such, but on the ...
69 citations
TL;DR: In this paper, the authors consider three sets of issue areas in which appeals to themes normally associated with political economy are necessary to understand national security concerns and conclude with a brief survey of how these influences are likely to affect the national security of a variety of states in the coming years.
Abstract: In contemporary International Relations theory, there exists a sharp distinction between international political economy and security studies However, this is largely a false distinction, a product of peculiar circumstances associated with the cold war, and one which is becoming increasingly anachronistic in the post-cold war era In order to understand international relations in this era, a reintegration of the discipline is necessary This article considers three sets of issue areas in which appeals to themes normally associated with political economy are necessary to understand national security concerns It explains how the cold war temporarily allowed the salience of these issues to recede, and why they are likely to be of increasing importance in contemporary international politics It concludes with a brief survey of how these influences are likely to affect the national security of a variety of states in the coming years
64 citations
TL;DR: In this article, the authors argue that discussions on the alleged loss of the nation-state's sovereignty are characterized by several theoretical deficiencies, such as employing a limited concept/definition of the state; then they are based on a limited understanding of the relations of capitalist globalization and political regulation; above all, they use a concept of democracy that is rather foreshortened and instrumentalizing.
Abstract: The process of globalization seems to undermine the nation-state as well as liberal democracy. In consequence, the need to establish democratic structures on an international level is widely postulated. The argument presented here is that discussions on the alleged loss of the nation-state's sovereignty are characterized by several theoretical deficiencies. First, they employ a limited concept/definition of the state; then they are based on a limited understanding of the relations of capitalist globalization and political regulation; above all, they use a concept of democracy that is rather foreshortened and instrumentalizing. However, in order to gain sufficient understanding of the chances for international democracy and of the role of NGOs within the framework of an 'international civil society', it is necessary to recognize the fact that the nation-state continues to be a precondition of globalization, though with a modified role. That is, the 'antagonism of the bourgeois constitution' (Marx) is renew...
TL;DR: The authors argue that many of the theories of globalization produced in the west need to be rethought in the light of critical post-colonial perspectives, and make a connection between the global and the post-colo...
Abstract: As debates on globalization spread across a broad range of analytical domains, the way the meanings associated with the global, the local and the transnational are interpreted is itself increasingly becoming a site of contention. It is a question not only of how we theoretically approach issues associated with global politics and cultural change, but also of who are the subjects of knowledge in such theorizations, and how do a variety of historical and geopolitical contextualizations influence the ideas, concepts and thematic priorities developed by those same subjects or agents of knowledge. This article argues that many of the theories of globalization produced in the west need to be rethought in the light of critical post-colonial perspectives. This entails not only a more pronounced emphasis on the past and present of projects of western power, but also a more sustained treatment of critical research on globalization produced in the non-west. By making a connection between the global and the post-colo...
TL;DR: This article reviewed the theoretical history of the international regime concept and its deployment within neorealist, neoliberal and institutionalist IR conceptual frameworks and showed how the concept can be deployed within a critical, neo-Gramscian theoretical framework to analyse meso-level structures and the role that global civil society actors are playing in contesting the normative structures (rights and rules), procedures and compliance mechanisms of existing and prospective international regimes.
Abstract: The author reviews the theoretical history of the international regime concept and its deployment within neorealist, neoliberal and institutionalist IR conceptual frameworks. He argues that the five criticisms or 'dragons' levelled by Susan Strange at the concept in her 1982 article 'Cave! Hic dragones' simultaneously underestimated the concept's theoretical originality and exaggerated the degree to which it committed theorists to a static, ordered and statist conception of the global political economy. The author shows how the concept, stripped of its neorealist and neoliberal heritage, can be deployed within a critical, neo-Gramscian theoretical framework to analyse meso-level structures and the role that global civil society actors are playing in contesting the normative structures (rights and rules), procedures and compliance mechanisms of existing and prospective international regimes.
TL;DR: In this article, the authors develop a theory of regulatory landscapes, as a conceptual tool to aid our understanding of processes of globalization, which vary along two dimensions, both of which relate to scale and boundaries and extend from 'bounded' to 'trans-boundary'.
Abstract: Processes of globalization involve changes in the spatialities of power and social relations. This article develops a theory of regulatory landscapes, as a conceptual tool to aid our understanding of processes of globalization. Regulatory landscapes vary along two dimensions, both of which relate to scale and boundaries and extend from 'bounded' to 'trans-boundary': first, the degree of boundedness of economic accumulation; and second, the degree of boundedness of political regulation. Processes of geo-regulatory change, then, may be conceived in terms of two analytically separable moments. The first moment of geo-regulatory change is the trans-boundary extension of economic accumulation. The second moment, which is the focus of this article, is the trans-boundary or extra-territorial extension of political regulation. It is hypothesized that the attempted trans-boundary extension of political regulation - to avoid regulatory underprovision - leads to border skirmishes, battles or negotiations about the n...
TL;DR: Weberian Historical Sociology (WHS) has been used to critique neorealism in IR as discussed by the authors, with the focus on the theory of state autonomy and its application to IR.
Abstract: With the current concern to critique neorealism, international relations (IR) theorists are looking to a variety of new perspectives as a way forward. Various authors have taken a specific interest in Weberian historical sociology (WHS), outlined in the works of Michael Mann and others. Nevertheless, there is currently only a rudimentary understanding of the approach within IR, and perhaps even less understanding of how it can be applied to IR. There is also a growing perception that the approach is inherently realist. This article seeks to redress this. It begins by laying out the basic WHS approach by identifying six general principles or traits. Special emphasis is given to recent developments in WHS's theory of state autonomy, which takes the approach beyond neorealism. Having considered how this approach overlaps with the concerns of various IR theorists, notably Linklater, Halliday and others, it proceeds to examine how the approach can take IR beyond neorealism, by applying it to understanding: int...
TL;DR: This article explored the significance of ideas, values and collective representations in shaping political economy by examining the case of free trade in late Victorian and Edwardian Britain and tied a historical perspective on the importance of political culture to the current methodological debate about political economy in the social sciences.
Abstract: This article explores the significance of ideas, values and collective representations in shaping political economy by examining the case of free trade in late Victorian and Edwardian Britain. Its aim is to tie a historical perspective on the importance of political culture to the current methodological debate about political economy in the social sciences. The opening critique of sectoral approaches is used to move the focus from material interests and economistic method to cultural significance and the interpretative framework underlying free trade. Shifting the attention to the knowledge of historical actors themselves reveals the formative role of ideology, historical memory and political language in constructing free trade as a collective good. Free trade was associated with a historical vision of national identity and societal self-development, and a moral ideal of the consumer, rather than with free market capitalism. The discussion concludes with some general thoughts on the importance of giving greater attention to political culture in the study of political economy.
TL;DR: In this paper, the theoretical and research implications of the crisis for international and comparative political economy are discussed, focusing on previously unseen or underemphasized economic and political weaknesses in the region.
Abstract: At the Asia Pacific Economic Cooperation (APEC) meeting in Vancouver in 1997, Mexican President Ernesto Zedillo and Chilean President Eduardo Frei lectured their Asian counterparts on the importance of adjusting swiftly to external shocks. Like this dramatic role reversal, the economic problems of 1997 have unleashed a wave of revisionism, focusing attention on previously unseen or underemphasized economic and political weaknesses in the region. At this juncture (February 1998), we cannot pretend to provide a full-blown explanation for what has occurred. Our task is more modest: to offer some thoughts about the theoretical and research implications of the crisis for international and comparative political economy.
TL;DR: In this paper, a structural functionalist analysis of the international system is presented, and the logic of the analysis is basically premised on an inductive analysis of state behavior, but in conformity with the structural functionalism of the times, he added notions of disequilibrium, system inputs and outputs to his model.
Abstract: With good reason scholars of international relations have been partial to systems theorizing. They have long understood that decisions of states to engage in war, to raise tariffs, to deter in one area and appease in another, hinge on what other actors are doing or how the other actors might interpret those states' actions. Units (states or other types of actors) are 'interconnected so that changes in some elements of their relations produce changes in other parts of the system, and the entire system exhibits properties and behaviors that are different from those parts' (ervis, 1997: 6).1 International relations theory has suggested not only that actors engage in complexly organized, mutually influencing behavior but also that they interact with each other in relatively stable and identifiable configurations. Several decades ago, Richard Rosecrance recognized roughly nine patterns of international practice (Rosecrance, 1963). Rather confusingly, but in conformity with the structural functionalist logic of the times, he added notions of disequilibrium, system inputs and outputs to his model, but the logic of his analysis was basically premised on an inductive analysis of state behavior. The established patterns of practices (balancing behavior, management of conflict through such international organizations as the League of Nations) were the defining traits of the international system. It was these patterns that provided constraints and opportunities to individual actors in the system. Similarly, in the systems theorizing of Morton Kaplan (1969), one could likewise distinguish structural functionalist overtones, but also a mode of systems theorizing that bore the stamp of nineteenth-century European balance-of-power politics. Scholars in the British school used a more explicit sociological understanding of the international system by infusing it with a study of international society (Buzan, 1993; Bull, 1977; Jackson, 1990).
TL;DR: This article argued that Hobson's vision of historical sociology is insufficiently radical and contemporary, since it almost completely ignores the emergence of global theorizing of all kinds (except for world-system theory).
Abstract: John Hobson's article presents us with a paradox. He upbraids international relations for not catching up with the second wave of historical sociology. But in order to remedy international relations' failure to understand state-society relations, he advocates a historical sociology which is rooted in the same old international, pre-global categories of realist international relations. Only the explanations of these categories differ from realism. Thus although Hobson's vision of historical sociology (I shall not use capitals or initials) is undoubtedly an advance on realism, it is in quite fundamental senses insufficiently radical and contemporary. Indeed, it has hardly kept up with critical trends in either international or sociological theory, since it almost completely ignores the emergence of global theorizing of all kinds (except for world-system theory). Each of Hobson's six principles has an important element of truth. However, not only do I see little evidence that they are applied in a way which can help us to understand the world of the twentyfirst century, but the archaism of Hobson's categories affects the very presentation of his approach. Taking the principles in turn will help to explain my disagreements; from these criticisms I draw the conclusion that we need a third wave of historical sociology, which breaks free from national-international dualisms and helps us to understand the transformations of the emerging 'global age' (Albrow,
TL;DR: In the early 1990s, Japan's economy was the envy of the world, and business managers and scholars in the west hurriedly dissected Japan's managerial practices and economic institutions to try to understand the secret of the success of the Japanese model as mentioned in this paper.
Abstract: Ten years ago, Japan's economy was the envy of the world, and business managers and scholars in the west hurriedly dissected Japan's managerial practices and economic institutions to try to understand the secret of the success of the 'Japanese model'. The consensus about Japan's economic prowess was such that a rapid recovery from the bursting of the 'bubble economy' was considered likely, even though it had been perhaps the largest speculative bubble in modern times. By the mid-1990s, Japan's failure to recover was blamed on its inability or unwillingness to switch from the developmentalist model it had pioneered to a more open, western-style capitalist system deemed more appropriate to a fully developed nation, but the efficacy of the model itself was not questioned. Spectacular growth rates registered first in Southeast Asia and then China, coupled with rhetoric by Asian leaders touting the political and economic institutions of the region, lent credence to the idea that the Japanese model and its Asian variants still showed the fastest pathway from the periphery
TL;DR: In this paper, the authors discuss the main growth theories and models of economists, starting of course with Adam Smith's Wealth of Nations, and then consider the World Bank report on East Asia in the light of this earlier discussion of growth theory.
Abstract: For everyone interested in the nature and causes of economic growth, events in East Asia over the past half century have been of outstanding interest. In the 1980s and 1990s, many economists were attempting to explain the so-called 'East Asian miracle', culminating in the report with that title by the World Bank in 1993. In 1998, the problem has been to explain the collapse of this 'miracle' and to assess the consequences for the world economy. This article first of all briefly discusses the main growth theories and models of economists, starting of course with Adam Smith's Wealth of Nations . The second part then considers the World Bank report on East Asia in the light of this earlier discussion of growth theory. It argues that, though very convincing on several points, the World Bank report paid insufficient attention to the role of technical change in economic growth. Finally, the third part discusses the collapse of the 'miracle' and offers a critique of the IMF prescription for various Asian countries.
TL;DR: In this article, the authors argue that under certain conditions, rent-seeking opponents of trade liberalization may actually turn into critically important allies of governments attempting major policy shifts from protectionism to free trade, where domestic rent seekers are persuaded that the government cannot or will not provide sufficient rents, they may pursue a second-most preferred strategy that entails attempting to secure access to cheaper factor inputs and access to foreign markets by actively supporting trade liberalisation.
Abstract: This article presents the argument that governments can mitigate the political risks associated with significant liberalization of trade by suggesting that under certain conditions, rent-seeking opponents of trade liberalization may actually turn into critically important allies of governments attempting major policy shifts from protectionism to free trade. It argues that where domestic rent seekers are persuaded that the government cannot or will not provide sufficient rents, they may pursue a second-most-preferred strategy that entails attempting to secure access to cheaper factor inputs and access to foreign markets by actively supporting trade liberalization.
TL;DR: For a "second-wave" Weberian historical sociology in international relations, see as mentioned in this paper for a reply to Halperin and Shaw, and the review of International Political Economy: Vol. 5, No. 2, pp. 354-361.
Abstract: (1998). For a 'second-wave' Weberian historical sociology in international relations: a reply to Halperin and Shaw. Review of International Political Economy: Vol. 5, No. 2, pp. 354-361.
Journal Article•
TL;DR: In this article, the authors examine the economics of institutions approach which purports to explain the rise of sovereign territorial states as the prevalent unit in the international system and find that the factors which explain the assigning of colonial, not sovereign, status to a nineteenth-century African kingdom are of a traditional economic origin.
Abstract: This article examines the economics of institutions approach which purports to explain the rise of sovereign territorial states as the prevalent unit in the international system. According to this institutional analysis, sovereign territorial states emerged as the dominant unit because they were more efficient than other political arrangements in the international system. This argument frames the failure of most non-western policies to become sovereign territorial states by the beginning of the twentieth century as an instance in which institutional structures were effective neither at meeting individuals' goals, nor at resolving collective action dilemmas, particularly with regard to security and economic exchange. Applying that argument to a nineteenth-century African kingdom, I find that the factors which explain the assigning of colonial, not sovereign, status to that kingdom are of a traditional economic origin, with cultural biases and relative military capability coming into play when economic comp...
TL;DR: Hobson as discussed by the authors argued that the traditional analytical distinction made between international and domestic levels of analysis obfuscate empirically and theoretically significant interdependencies of interstate and domestic systems, and proposed a framework for multicausal and multi-spatial analyses of complex change based on principles drawn from Weberian historical sociology and applied this framework to three phenomena: the shift to protectionism in late nineteenth century Europe, the link between war and revolution, and international systems change.
Abstract: The perception that traditional frameworks used to study international relations have failed to grasp both the nature of international relations and the direction of major trends of change in the international system has stimulated a more searching critique of dominant approaches in the field, a wider appreciation for critical theory, and a renewed interest in history. International relations theorists of all schools now recognize that conventional analytical distinction made between international and domestic levels of analysis obfuscate empirically and theoretically significant interdependencies of interstate and domestic systems. Consequently, there is growing awareness of the need for a broader and more inclusive paradigm - one which can capture these interdependencies and the interacting and evolving systems which are increasingly transforming national systems and international relations. This awareness has helped to blur the boundaries among paradigms and to encourage a more fluid interaction among social science disciplines. This is good news for the field of political science, since many of its traditional concerns (e.g., war and social change) connect with and overlap a number of disciplinary fields. In 'The historical sociology of the state and the state of historical sociology in international relations,' J.M. Hobson joins a growing number of international relations theorists who are calling for a critical sociology of international relations. Disputing the claim that Weberian analysis is 'merely a sociological form of neorealism,' Hobson sets out to present 'a defense of Weberian historical sociology as applied to the study of intemational relations.' His aim is, first, to define a framework for 'multicausal and multi-spatial analyses of complex change' based on principles drawn from Weberian historical sociology; and, second, to apply this framework to three phenomena: the shift to protectionism in late nineteenth century Europe, the link between war and revolution, and international systems change. Hobson's framework, however, is not a set of theoretically-linked propositions but only a collection of analytical positions culled from the