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This article takes a critical realist stance in exploring the changing conditions for and forms of hegemony and counter-hegemony in "postmodern", "neoliberal", "globalized" times. Current hegemonic practices and projects make common sense of a market-driven politics and a fragmented culture, infusing into them an organization of consent that operates both locally and globally. Yet this amounts only to a thin hegemony, a weak and ecologically unsustainable basis for social cohesion and material reproduction. If contemporary hegemony is deeply yet perilously grounded then counter-hegemony needs to address those grounds. This stricture points to the articulation of various subaltern and progressive-democratic currents into a counter-hegemonic bloc that organizes dissent across space and time. Counter-hegemony needs to walk on both legs, taking up statecentred issues as well as issues resident in national and transnational civil societies. Its durability across conjunctures requires not only a shared ethical vision but a political form appropriate to its tasks. A range of recent developments relevant to these issues is discussed. The article concludes with a critique of the anti-hegemonic politics of dispersed singularities, whose insights, particularly on the value of direct action and prefiguration, need to be integrated into a strategically coherent form.

This article takes a critical realist stance in exploring the changing conditions for and forms of hegemony and counter-hegemony in "postmodern", "neoliberal", "globalized" times. Current hegemonic practices and projects make common sense of a market-driven politics and a fragmented culture, infusing into them an organization of consent that operates both locally and globally. Yet this amounts only to a thin hegemony, a weak and ecologically unsustainable basis for social cohesion and material reproduction. If contemporary hegemony is deeply yet perilously grounded then counter-hegemony needs to address those grounds. This stricture points to the articulation of various subaltern and progressive-democratic currents into a counter-hegemonic bloc that organizes dissent across space and time. Counter-hegemony needs to walk on both legs, taking up statecentred issues as well as issues resident in national and transnational civil societies. Its durability across conjunctures requires not only a shared ethical vision but a political form appropriate to its tasks. A range of recent developments relevant to these issues is discussed. The article concludes with a critique of the anti-hegemonic politics of dispersed singularities, whose insights, particularly on the value of direct action and prefiguration, need to be integrated into a strategically coherent form.

The article analyses Fiji politics by utilising the analytical framework established by neo-Gramscian scholars, who emphasise the role of social forces and constitutive moments in the making of history. Elite hegemony in Fiji was founded on the hegemony of indigenous chiefs, local and transnational capital and indigenous nationalism. These three pillars of elite hegemony are central arguments of critical and cultural neo-Gramscian theories on power, social forces and neoliberal economic discourses and this neo-Gramscian approach provides both ontological and epistemological frameworks for the study of both hegemony and counter-hegemony in Fiji and reflect convergence, divergence, mobilisation, resistance, and control, and inform counter history and social reframing, where ethnic social forces collide with inter-ethnic alliances, creating new political counter-hegemonic paradigms that usher in new historical and social trajectories.

"Hegemony" published on by Oxford University Press.

The emergence of an "American democratic empire", rising from the global informational & transportation revolution, that has its epicentre situated on the territory of the United States (US), has produced a profound metamorphosis in world affairs. National power elites, including those in America, are confronting a dilemma. They are compelled to accept, favour & even defend the so-called globalisation process in order to avoid further erosion of their economic & political power. On the other hand, this process is also directly threatening this same power. The paradox is that the US is the main promoter & defender of last resort of the new global 'order', which at the same time is restricting its own margins for sovereign action. The "democratic empire" is thus fostering the rise of a democratic hegemonism at the expense of a "US hegemonism". This democratic hegemonism is a gradually rising -- & fragile -- consensus on a proliferating set of perceptions & values, stressing individual freedom, responsibility & political & social activism. This consensus arises from the material possibilities of a more individualistic way of life & the increasing capacity of single individuals or organised groups to participate in global & local political decision-making processes. This is a process that favours the empowerment of interest groups whose reference is no longer solely the nation-state. Hence, traditional power elites are progressively losing their ability to present themselves as the ultimate embodiment of a national "general interest". The irony of the seemingly intractable contradiction between US hegemonism & democratic hegemonism is that the actual spreading of the logic of the latter is closely dependent on US power & willingness to defend its own national interest. The greatest challenge for the coming decades will be the construction of supranational governance institutions under democratic hegemony, so as to avoid a classic imperial self-isolation of the US -- a situation that would trigger the inevitable demise of democratic hegemonism &, for the time being, of any order as such. References. Adapted from the source document.

An earlier paper by the second author, entitled 'Bella Americana: Some Consequences for the International Community' [1], dealt with the background and consequences of the American dissociation from the international legal and political order created after World War II. The current article examines this divergence in the light of United States foreign policy in general, pointing out that hegemony, unilateralism and pre-emptive strike together represent a certain 'constant' in American foreign policy. The article then examines the so called 'war on terror', trying to understand its flaws within the context of American strategic culture. Arguably, however, what has changed after 9/11 is not just the nature of security threats as such but also the global environment in which these manifest themselves. Taking supremacy of the world's military, technological and financial-economic superpower as a basis for further analysis, the issue becomes how to get that hegemony embedded in a multilateral setting. Here the notion of 'policy by-products' appears to open new venues. Continuing unilateralism, the article argues, would constitute a serious threat to American security proper.

Cover -- Contents -- List of Abbreviations -- Foreword -- Acknowledgements -- Introduction -- 1 Hegemony and Global Politics -- What Is Hegemony? -- Hegemony through State Leadership -- Hegemony as an Ideology -- Approaching Hegemony -- 2 Hegemony and Its Origins in World Politics -- Hegemony in Greece and Rome -- The Holy Roman Empire -- Mercantilism or Spanish Hegemony? -- Westphalia or Dutch Hegemony? -- Liberalism or British Hegemony? -- 'Rival Imperialism' or the Interregnum? -- Conclusion -- 3 US Hegemony -- The Rise of US Power -- Hegemonic Stability Theory -- US Hegemony after the Cold War -- The Problems with US Hegemony -- 4 Hegemony, Gramsci and World Politics -- Hegemony and Marxism before Gramsci -- Gramsci and Hegemony -- Gramsci and World Politics -- Rethinking Neo-Gramscian Hegemony? -- The Roots of Neoliberalism -- Breaking the Mould: Pinochet, Thatcher and Reagan -- Neoliberalism on the Offensive: Globalization and the Decline of Socialism -- Neoliberalism on the Defensive: Austerity and Crisis -- Conclusion: The Longevity of Neoliberal Hegemony? -- 5 Neoliberal Hegemony -- The Roots of Neoliberalism -- Breaking the Mould: Pinochet, Thatcher and Reagan -- Neoliberalism on the Offensive: Globalization and the Decline of Socialism -- Neoliberalism on the Defensive: Austerity and Crisis -- Conclusion: The Longevity of Neoliberal Hegemony? -- 6 The Rise of China and BRICS -- The Rise of China -- BRICS -- Emerging Powers or the Semi-Periphery? -- 7 Regionalism -- Old and New Regionalism -- Europe -- East Asia -- Latin America -- Other Regional Formations -- Regionalism versus Variegated Neoliberalism? -- 8 The Idea of Counter-Hegemony -- Understanding Counter-Hegemony -- Types of Counter-Hegemonic Discourse -- Fragmentation and Trasformismo -- The Significance of Counter-Hegemony -- Conclusion.