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Let me start with the worlds politico-strategic affairs, which I would summarize here in terms of three main assumptions that get made about human nature. Assumptions about human nature tend to fall into three categories. There are those who believe that (mostly other) people (individually or collectively) are good, bad, or rational. Again, individuals and groups are clearly all three. I only note here how scholars themselves tend to talk about politico-strategic affairs. Those who see people as basically bad tend to see the worlds politico-strategic affairs in realist terms. (Those who reach towards more rationalist premises are neo-Marxists).
Both depict world affairs as a constant struggle for the power to survive. They see state-makers as living in an ungoverned world and as having to prepare for the worst. The self-help strategies that result may range from self-defense through the attempt to dominate others (imperialism) to the acceptance of a common power (neo-mercantilists) capable of keeping all in awe (hegemony). Neo-mercantilism contains many interlocking principles. Precious metals, such as gold and silver, were deemed indispensable to a nations wealth by mercantilists. If a nation did not possess mines or have access to them, precious metals should be obtained by trade.
Neo-mercantilists believe that trade balances must be favorable, meaning an excess of exports over imports. Third world markets are used for exports and are viewed as suppliers of raw materials to the mother country. A strong nation, according to the neo-mercantilist theory, is to have a large population, for a large population would provide a supply of labor, a market, and army. Human wants were to be minimized, especially for imported luxury goods, for they drained off precious foreign exchange. Sumptuary laws (affecting food and drugs) were to be passed to make sure that wants were held low.
Thrift, saving, and even parsimony were regarded as virtues, for only by these means could capital be created. In effect, mercantilism provided the favorable climate for the early development of capitalism, with its promises of profit. It is bad enough that the US Establishment sees itself as historically destined or entitled to create an imperial order of pseudo-free trade. US Establishment views hegemony from neo-mercantilists perspective. It is bad enough that few now remember that free trade a very good thing actually meant something quite different from the hegemony of One Great Super Power which talks a lot about free trade.
It is even worse when the One Power wishes to rule everywhere, simultaneously, while believing at the same time in its own sacrosanct security (freedom from fear, everywhere in the world? ). The concept of hegemony is used by neo-Marxists so as to explain the use of power by the state in society. Hegemony refers to the manner in which institutions such as the state are said to occupy a powerful (hegemonic) position within society. With the use of this concept Wallerstein furthers the analysis begun by Marx by suggesting that the original assumption of Marx that the state was merely a committee operating on behalf of the capitalists is only partially correct. Things as it were are a bit more complex than Marx believed. In France, for example, a brand of neo-Marxism has influenced a new generation of cultural anthropologists to concentrate on analyses of primitive economies.
Classical evolutionism, meanwhile, has been revived in the United States by some cultural anthropologists who speak of multi-linear evolutionism or many paths to modernization. The concept of hegemony is very important for both neo-Marxists and neo-mercantilists. However, two parties view hegemony as the means of reaching different objectives. I believe that Wallerstein views the concept of hegemony most efficaciously.
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Research essay sample on Precious Metals Cultural Anthropologists
