Adam Smith In Beijing: Lineages Of The Twenty-first Century

ADAM SMITH IN BEIJING Lineages of the Twenty-First Century • GIOV ANNI ARRIGHI VERSO London . New York First published by Verso 2007 © Giovanni Arrighi 2007 All righ ts reserved The moral rights of the author have been asserted 1 3 5 7 9 10 8 6 4 2 Verso UK: 6 Meard Street, London W1F OEG USA: 180 Varick Street, New York, NY 10014-4606 www.versobooks.com Verso is the imprint of New Left Books ISBN 978-1-84467-104-5 British Library Cataloguing in Publication Data A catalogue record for this book is available from the British Library Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data A catalog record for this book is available from the Library of Congress Typeset in Sabon by Hewer Text UK Ltd, Edinburgh Printed in the USA by Maple Vail LIST OF FIGURES 1.1 Combined GDP as a percentage of world GDP: US + UK versus China + Japan 1 .2 Combined GDP per capita: US + UK versus China + J apan (logged) 3 . 1 Low-lever - (Malthusian) versus high-level (Smithian) equilibrium traps 5 . 1 National exports as a percentage of total world exports 5.2 Current-account balance, 1 980-2005 7 . 1 Current-account balance as a percentage of world GDP 9 . 1 President Bush's approval ratings from February 2001 to October 2006 1 2 . 1 Per capita income and adult life expectancy, 1960-2000 12.2 Per capita income and adult literacy, 1970-2000 38 38 70 133 146 192 263 371 372 CO NTENTS List o f F igures Prefac e and Acknow ledgments Int ro du c tion ix xi 1 Part I: Adam Smith and the New Asian Age 1 Marx in Detroit, Smith in Beijing 2 Th e Historical Sociology of Adam Smith 3 Marx, Schumpeter, and the "Endless" Accu m ulation of Capital and Power 13 40 69 Part II: Tracking Global Turbulence 4 The Ec onomics of Global Turbulence 5 So ci al Dynamics of Global Turbulence 6 A C risis of Hegem ony 99 121 149 Part III: Hegemo n y Unraveling 7 D omination without Hegemony 8 The T erritorial Logic of Historical Capitalism 9 The World State that Never Was 175 211 250 P ar t IV: Lineages of the New Asian Age 10 Th e C hallenge of "Peaceful Ascent" 11 St ate s, Markets, and Capitalism, East and West 12 O rigins and Dynamic of the Chinese Ascent 277 309 351 EP ilo gue B ib liogr aphy Index 379 390 409 PREFACE AND A CKNOWLED GMENTS This book is a sequel and elaboration of two earlier works, The Long Twentieth Century and Chaos and Governance in the Modern World System.1 It focuses on two developments that, more than any other, are shaping world politics, economy, and society. One is the rise and demise of the neo-conservative Project for a New American Century; the other is the emergence of China as the leader of the East Asian economic renaissance. D ue attention will be paid to the many state and non-state actors that have contributed to these two develop­ ments, but the main focus of the analysis will be on the US and Chinese states as the key actors of the unfolding glob � l transforma­ tion. Friends , students , and colleagues who have read and commented on the manuscript before the final round of revisions have given unusually discrepant assessments of its components . Chapters that some readers enj oyed most, others enj oyed least. Chapters and sections that some readers thought central to the argument of the book, others found superfluous . Discrepancies in readers' reactions are normal but not to the extent that I have experienced with this book. I think that the anomaly can be traced to the double purpose of the book-hinted at in its title-and to the different methods deployed in its p ursuit. The purpose of the book is as much to offer an interpretation of the ongoing shift of the epicenter of the global political economy from North America to East