ABSTRACT
Expansive systems prove resilient when they have room left to expand and successfully overcome external challenges to their hegemony, especially when such challenges represent alternative socio-economic arrangements. When a system is complete, and when it no longer faces serious challenges, it starts to decline, and ultimately self-destructs. In this chapter, the first objective is to understand the increasing difficulties of capitalism in managing its internal contradictions in a global environment before looking into the social and political processes triggered by those inherent problems.
