First-class passengers on a sinking ship : elite politics and the decline of great powers
(Book)
Author
Published
London ; Verso, 2020.
Format
Book
Status
Sequim - Nonfiction (Adult)
327.1 LACHMAN
1 available
327.1 LACHMAN
1 available
Copies
Location | Call Number | Status |
---|---|---|
Sequim - Nonfiction (Adult) | 327.1 LACHMAN | Available |
Description
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More Details
Published
London ; Verso, 2020.
Physical Desc
xiii, 477 pages ; 24 cm
Language
English
Notes
Bibliography
Includes bibliographical references and index.
Description
The extent and irreversibility of U.S. decline is becoming ever more obvious as America loses war after war and as one industry after another loses its technological edge. Lachmann explains why the United States will not be able to sustain its global dominance. He contrasts America's relatively brief period of hegemony with the Netherlands' similarly short primacy and Britain's far longer era of leadership. Decline in all those cases was not inevitable and did not respond to global capitalist cycles. Rather, decline is the product of elites' success in grabbing control of resources and governmental powers. Not only are ordinary people harmed, but also capitalists become increasingly unable to coordinate their interests and adopt policies and make investments necessary to counter economic and geopolitical competitors elsewhere in the world. Conflicts among elites and challenges by non-elites determine the timing and mould the contours of decline. Lachmann traces the transformation of US politics from an era of elite consensus to present-day paralysis combined with neoliberal plunder, explains the paradox of an American military with an unprecedented technological edge unable to subdue even the weakest enemies, and the consequences of finance's cannibalisation of the U.S. economy.