Shifting balance

There are three interlocking crises currently haunting the global capitalist economy: food shortages, oil-price hikes and the credit crunch. This convergence of crises in agriculture, energy and the credit market is linked, to some degree, to an ongoing spatial shift in global capitalism. The hitherto unquestioned economic dominance of older capitalist countries is now being increasingly challenged by the rise of new economic powers, particularly symbolised by the so-called BRIC countries – Brazil, Russia, India and China. To emphasise this global shift, researchers point to the 18th century as the 'French' era, the 19th century as British, and the 20th century as American. Now, they are suggesting that the 21st century will be an Asian century.

This changing balance is a manifestation of what can be thought of as the 'law of uneven and combined development'. According to this idea, the world capitalist economy is one integrated whole. Its various national and regional components are shaped in different ways by the specific modes in which this economy functions. The national differences in technology, marketing, product range, agriculture and industry linkages, financial institutions, natural and human resources, political and legal structures, socio-cultural hierarchies, military institutions and the bargaining power of competing classes – all of these combine in complex ways to determine the competitive powers of various countries in the global economy.