ABSTRACT
This conclusion presents some closing thoughts on the concepts covered in the preceding chapters of this book. The book summarizes the ground that are covered, draws some conclusions, notes the ground that are missed, raises some new questions, and reviews speculations about possible futures for the contemporary world-system. It argues about several major arguments constituting the foundation of a theoretical research program for constructing new explanations of social evolution based on world-systems as the unit of analysis. In order to be useful, concepts developed for explaining and interpreting the history of the modern world-system must be modified extensively to deal with the problem of comparing rather different kinds of world-systems. The book proposes that all world-systems pulsate in the sense that interaction networks expand and contract, or at least expand more rapidly and then less rapidly. It also discusses the prospects and nature of a possible future transformation from capitalism to democratic socialism.
