Wallerstein & Said

Immanuel Wallerstein thinks world empires existed before capitalism and were characterized by a common political entity: military dominance and taxation over other countries (Allan 441). However, in the current world economics time hegemonies still exist, but they have changed the way they force political agendas and taxation over other countries. Edward Said’s orientalism could be helpful to support the claim that this kind of system still exist. Colonizers’ countries can be viewed as hegemonies, which are interested in gaining economic, cultural, and political power over the colonized. Edward Said calls the attention to consider that “while decolonized nations may no longer be directly dominated, they nonetheless continue to be colonized politically, economically, and culturally” (Allan 564). But, New world empires try to give the impression that the world order has changed since all the nations are ‘capable’ to participate in the economic system.

Are hegemonies a thing of the past?