1st Edition
Elites and the People in Global Power Relations The Differential Accumulation of Power
Preface
1 Introduction: The Different Accumulation of Power (DAP) approach
2 Theory and System
2.1 Theory and longue durée
2.2 The impossibility of separating the domestic and global systems
2.2.1 Hegemony and globalisation
3 Actors
3.1 Elites
3.1.1 Primary and secondary elites
3.1.2 Elites and global systen
3.1.3 Hegemony, governance, and global authoritarianism
3.2 People and Social movements
3.2.1 Populace and democracy
3.2.2 Populace and mobilisation
3.2.3 The populace as actor in the global systen
3.2.4 The organic intellectual
4 Relations: competition and alliances
4.1 Cooperation, or how to secure control of a resource
4.1.1 Cooperation within the framework of circular relations
4.1.2 Cooperation in the framework of linear relations
4.1.3 Democratic peace or neoliberal peace?
4.2 International conflict, or the search for an advantageous instability
4.2.1 International conflict
4.2.2 Advantageous instability
4.2.3 Security as discourse
4.2.4 The conflictual complex
5 Resources
5.1 The state: resource and structure
5.1.1 Does national interest exist
5.1.2 The state: a resource in the global system
5.2 Coercion
5.2.1 The military-industrial complex
5.3 Capital and corporations
5.3.1 Capital and global power
5.3.2 The corporation
5.4 Information
5.4.1 Mass media: oligopoly against democracy
5.4.2 Mass media and the populace
5.5 Ideology
5.5.1 Ideology and identity
5.2.2 The ddiscourse trap
6 Structure
6.1 Structure, ideology and values
6.1.1 Hegemony
7 The function of theory
7.1 Liberating science
8 Bibliography
Biography
Ferran Izquierdo-Brichs is a retired professor on International Relations at Autonomous University of Barcelona. His research is focused on the Sociology of power and the Arab world. He has published numerous articles on these issues, and in the last years the books: Social Mobilization in Morocco: Lessons Learned for a Historically Informed Activism (ibidem Verlag, 2023, with J.L. Mateo Dieste, L. Feliu Martínez, and N. Ribas-Mateos); Political Regimes and Neopatrimonialism in Central Asia (Palgrave Macmillan, 2021, with F. Serra-Massansalvador); and Communist Parties in the Middle East: 100 Years of History (Routledge, 2019, with L. Feliu).
John Etherington is a researcher and lecturer at the Department of Political Science and Public Law of the Universitat Autònoma de Barcelona, Spain. He has published on a variety of topics, including nationalism, territorial governance in the EU, and political Islam. His publications include “Nationalism, Exclusion and Violence: a territorial approach”, Studies in Etnicity and Nationalism, 7, 3 (2007); “Nationalism, National Identity and Territory: Jacint Verdaguer and the Catalan renaixença” Ethnic and Racial Studies 33, 10 (2010); Political Islam in a Time of Revolt (Springer, 2017, with F. Izquierdo and L. Feliu).
Guillem Farrés Fernández is a Lecturer of International Relations at the Universitat Oberta de Catalunya and a member of the Research Group on International Relations and International Law (GERD). He specializes in international conflicts, the theoretical debate in International Relations, and the MENA region. His publications include: “Reanalysing International Conflicts: Proposals from the Sociology of Power,” International Studies 56, no. 4 (2019): 255–71; and “Security Sector Reform and the Competition for Power in Lebanon,” Contemporary Arab Affairs 12, no. 1 (2019): 39–54.]
"This book asks the questions that matter and offers genuinely novel answers. In a world where the boundaries between internal and external have dissolved, power reveals itself in all its complexity—relational, multidimensional, and drawn from vastly diverse resources. The authors map a competition whose rules have fundamentally shifted from an era when territory was destiny to one where finance and global elites set the terms, reducing states to necessary yet non-determinant resources. Essential reading for anyone seeking to understand the deep structures of contemporary power."
- Laura Feliu i Martínez, Senior Lecturer of International Relations, Universitat Autònoma de Barcelona
"This book is essential reading for academic and policy audiences alike. The authors equip readers with critical tools to understand the interplay between capital and power competition in both domestic and international spheres. This is a vital addendum to discussions on rentierism while deepening our understanding of the role of external finance in domestic politics and international relations. Scholars and policy makers who seek to understand the political dynamics around financing for development and reform should study this text closely."
- Timothy E. Kaldas, Deputy Director of the Tahrir Institute for Middle East Policy
