We are linking to a recent article by James Petras, a leftist scholar who studies Latin America, and a writer in English- and Spanish-language publications. If people haven’t figured it out yet, Insurgent American does not attend anyone’s True Church. One of the advantages of that is that we have the flexibility to select our standpoints (or lenses?) when and where they are useful for understanding, without elevating any one of those standpoints into The Grand Unified Theory of Everything. Taxonomies, in particular, are subject to this kind of grandiosity; they conceal their assumptions inside themselves (like the wooden horse at Troy). Taxonomies — once in use — have the appearance of being neutral, or objective if you like, even though they establish cognitive starting points that inevitably corral conclusions. Having disclaimed thus, taxonomies — once they are recognized for what they are and are not — can be useful for penetrating below the surface of things. Petras’ piece gives us a very interesting taxonomy of power for the world system in this article from the Canadian Global Research We might quibble with Petras on his opening statement’s declarative claim “can best be understood,” and we might find other points of view useful that more directly include culture, climate, ecology, and gender (often minimized by the Left). Still, this is worth a hard look, and perhaps even a few conversations:

The structure of power of the world imperial system can best be understood through a classification of countries according to their political, economic, diplomatic and military organization.

Introduction:

The imperial system is much more complex than what is commonly referred to as the “US Empire”. The US Empire, with its vast network of financial investments, military bases, multi-national corporations and client states, is the single most important component of the global imperial system (1). Nevertheless, it is overly simplistic to overlook the complex hierarchies, networks, follower states and clients that define the contemporary imperial system (2). To understand empire and imperialism today requires us to look at the complex and changing system of imperial stratification.

Hierarchy of Empire

The structure of power of the world imperial system can best be understood through a classification of countries according to their political, economic, diplomatic and military organization. The following is a schema of FULL

[De chimes in: Petras’ article on the new global billionaire class — ‘Meet the Global Ruling Class’ — is also worth a read. A good account of privatisation as privateering.]

Posted by stan in Analysis