What is different in capitalist civilization has been two things. First, the process of meritocracy has been proclaimed as an official virtue instead of being merely a de facto reality. The culture has been different. And secondly, the percentage of… — Immanuel Wallerstein Copy Share Image
It seems to me the only pertinent question is: cui bono? It is clear that the size of the privileged strata as a percentage of the whole has grown significantly under historical capitalism. And for these people, the world they… — Immanuel Wallerstein Copy Share Image
“La science sociale di XIXe siecle nous a legue un terrible heritage, l'idee que els processus se divisent en trois champs separes: le politique,… — Immanuel Wallerstein Copy Share Image
Uncertainty is wondrous, and.. certainty, were it to be real, would be moral death. — Immanuel Wallerstein Copy Share Image
A second variety concentrated on presumed major transformations of the capitalist system as of some recent point in time, in which the whole earlier… — Immanuel Wallerstein Copy Share Image
I am suggesting that there is, and always has been, a rather high correlation between ethnicity and occupation/economic role throughout the various time-space zones… — Immanuel Wallerstein Copy Share Image
The concept that one ought to restrict one's political involvement to one's own state was deeply antithetical to those who were pursuing the accumulation… — Immanuel Wallerstein Copy Share Image
One by one, these governments came undone, and were forced into IMF tutelage (and national illegitimacy) by the careening oil prices, the debt imbroglio,… — Immanuel Wallerstein Copy Share Image
The language of intrinsic human rights represented a significant advance beyond the previous language of world religions in terms of its universal applicability and… — Immanuel Wallerstein Copy Share Image
Wars between states and people seem to have existed under all historical systems for as long as we have some recorded evidence. War is… — Immanuel Wallerstein Copy Share Image
Production for sale in a market in which the object is to realize the maximum profit is the essential feature of a capitalist world-economy.… — Immanuel Wallerstein Copy Share Image
We seem to be in the midst of a process of cascading bifurcations that may last some 50 more years. We can be sure… — Immanuel Wallerstein Copy Share Image
Scientific culture created a framework within which individual mobility was possible without threatening hierarchical work-force allocation. On the contrary, meritocracy reinforced hierarchy. Finally, meritocracy… — Immanuel Wallerstein Copy Share Image
It is not surprising that liberals believed in progress. The idea of progress justified the entire transition from feudalism to capitalism. It legitimated the… — Immanuel Wallerstein Copy Share Image
