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A CRITICAL REEXAMINATION OF PREVALENT ASSUMPTIONS IN INTERNATIONAL LITERATURE IS PRESENTED. THE TRADITIONAL MODEL OF THE INTERSTATE SYSTEM, WHICH GIVES THE NATIONSTATE A PROMINENT PLACE AS ACTOR & UNIT OF ANALYSIS & CONCEIVES OF THE INTERNATIONAL SYSTEM AS A COLLECTIVITY OF STATES AIMING AT EQUILIBRIUM, HAS BEEN GENERALLY ACCEPTED BY SCHOLARS (IE BALANCE OF POWER THEORY). DEVELOPMENTS IN INTERNATIONAL REALITY SEEM TO CONTRADICT THESE ASSUMPTIONS. THEY ARE SUMMARIZED IN THE CONCEPTS OF THE 'NUCLEAR AGE' & THE 'TRANSNATIONAL SYSTEM' & COMBINED IN THE NOTION OF INTERDEPENDENCE CHARACTERIZING THE PRESENT INTERNATIONAL SYSTEM. THESE DEVELOPMENTS POINT TO THE INCREASING CONVERGENCE OF RATIONAL & INTERNATIONAL POLITICS. IN RECENT INTERNATIONAL RELATIONS LITERATURE, THE TRADITIONAL HORIZONTAL, TERRITORIALLY-BASED ORGANIZATION OF THE POLITICAL PROCESS IS CONTRASTED WITH ITS INCREASINGLY VERTICAL, TRANSNATIONAL CHARACTER, WHILE AT THE SAME TIME THE EQUILIBRIUM MODEL OF INTERNATIONAL POLITICS IS SUPERSEDED BY A VIEW OF THE INTERNATIONAL SYSTEM BASED ON RELATIONS OF DOMINANCE & SUPREMACY. THESE NEW INSIGHTS ARE COMBINED IN A MODEL OF A WORLD POLITICAL SYSTEM THAT IS GLOBAL IN ITS GEOGRAPHICAL DIMENSION. HA.

The concept "level of SE development" plays an important role in the study of comparative politics, but little attention has been paid to its operationalization & measurement accuracy. The use of the concept in the cross-national literature is reviewed, & an attempt is made to provide a meaningful definition through the construction of an index via confirmative factor analysis of select indicators. An evaluation of the index's validity & utility in cross-national research is provided. 2 Tables, 1 Figure, 2 Appendixes, 26 References. Modified HA