Globalization Or The Age Of Transition?: A Longterm View of the Trajectory of the World-System

Globalization has produced an unwarranted defeatism, for the world-economy is actually now in a transitional phase that has many possibilities. When one examines the last fifty years of world history, with its numerous political and economic crises, it is clear that nothing is predestined. From the standpoint of Kondratieff cycles, the world is now in the stage of terminal crisis. This article examines those cycles in detail, relating them to three major structural crises of capitalism that center on accumulation rather than growth. How the next cycle works out will be the result of political struggle between those who have benefited from globalization and those who seek to create a new historical phase that is democratic and egalitarian.