№ 3 - 2007
Barsukova S.Yu.
“Empire”, or Farewell to Modernity

The author shares with the readers her reflections on the book “Empire” by M. Hardt and A. Negri. The book is, undoubtedly, one of the most authoritative neo-Marxist works, concentrated on a new world order. The authors’ position is definitely announced: we are living at the times of Empire. There has been nothing of this kind ever before, and the so-called empires of the past were nothing more than imperialist projects. The Empire whose springing up is taking place before our eyes, means that the epoch of the Modern has reached its end. What has come is a new world order, whose economic nerve is the world market and whose organizational structure is presented by global networks of market exchange. The Empire is forming the political unity of the world, as well as the global market. The questions of how this order has been taking shape, what is the mechanism of its implementation, how social institutions, labour relations, practices of racism, international norms etc. are changing in this connection, do not receive a definite answer, but the version presented by the authors of the book, is certainly worthy of note.