ABSTRACT
This chapter looks at one of a number of over-optimistic postmodern analyses of the capitalist world economy from which imperialism, economic crisis, the state, class and class struggle have all been purged. It examines and challenges the claim made by Hardt and Negri about the existence of a 'new capitalist epoch' based on a purported information revolution. In this regard it is clear that the innovations in the early and middle twentieth century were far more significant sources of economy-wide productivity improvement than the electronic, computerized information systems of the late twentieth century. The chapter considers the related questions of the microlevel structure and the kind of agency to which empire gives rise. The analysis informing Empire, it is argued, follows what is now the well-worn path of postmodern theory. Historically and currently, competition between rival imperial powers, economic enterprises and multinational corporations has been spearheaded essentially by rival imperial states.
