Abstract
Discussions of the impact of globalization on the powers of nation-states generally assume, first, that globalization is so novel a process that its dynamics and likely outcome(s) are hard or impossible to predict and, second, that nation-states have been the basic governmental units of world capitalism since its inception, which some date from the 19th century and others from the 17th century or even earlier. The article questions both assumptions. It argues that much of what goes under the catch-word `globalization' has in fact been a recurrent feature of world capitalism since early modern times. Only by recognizing what is recurrent in ongoing transformations of world capitalism, can we hope to isolate what is truly new and anomalous in these transformations. It then goes on to argue that the leading organizing centers of world capitalism have never been `nation-states' proper. Rather, they have been something less or something more than that and, in their succession, they describe an evolutionary pattern which is now at an impasse. The article concludes by speculating on possible ways out of this impasse with special reference to the implications of the rise of East Asia to the most dynamic center of world-scale processes of capital accumulation.