Empire - the new world order

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Empire - the new world order is a book by the American literary scholar Michael Hardt and the Italian philosopher Antonio Negri . It was described by Slavoj Žižek as an attempt at a "communist manifesto [s] of the 21st century" and is considered to be a central work of postoperaism . The English-language original edition ( Empire. Globalization as a new Roman order, awaiting its early Christians ) appeared in 2000, the German translation in 2002.

In the meantime, a second volume ( Multitude - War and Democracy in Empire ) and a third volume ( Common Wealth: The End of Property ) have appeared.

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Empire tries to describe the current world order. The imperialism as a stage of capitalism was finally overcome. It is no longer the nation states that are sovereign , but capital itself, which has three instruments of power: the atomic bomb , money and “ether”, understood as transnational communication systems. Now power no longer has a clear center, it is rather everywhere, it pervades life as " bio-power ", the national states are losing their importance, wars become police actions, production is immaterial and networked (" immaterial labor "). The institutions of the disciplinary society according to Michel Foucault , such as schools, prisons or clinics, would lose their limits and would be extended to the whole of society. From this the ubiquitous control society is formed . These characterize linguistic relationships , military units, patterns of migration , social movements, companies, physiological structures and even personal relationships.

The Empire no longer knows any outside, it encompasses the whole world and all of life. It can deal flexibly with different subject forms, flat hierarchies and the diverse exchange in computer networks . Yet his power is only apparent. The Empire can only ever react to the actions of the multitude (crowd, multiplicity). It is she who is creative and productive and thus creates the Empire. The empire is nothing without the multitude.

“Multitude” is a colorful term in the book Empire and is difficult to translate. It is detailed in Multitude - War and Democracy in Empire . In the German translation “Quantity” is used, but it can also be understood as multiplicity, as diversity (of people, subjects, “singularities”). It goes back to the philosophy of Cicero ( de re publica ), Spinoza ( Multitudo ) and Gilles Deleuze ( Rhizom ).

Since there is no longer an outside, according to Negri and Hardt, any policy that refers to a standpoint outside the Empire is a failure. Instead, it is important to let the multitude "come to itself" and thus throw off the parasitic empire and achieve a renewed communism . This happens in the process of asserting three rights: world citizenship , social wages and reappropriation .

Negri and Hardt sketch a utopia according to which the multitude will form a “counter-empire” in which everything bad in the world will be overcome and a “new person” will emerge. Piercings and tattoos are only the first harbingers of such a transformation of the body.

reception

The book reached a large audience and was traded as the “ Communist Manifesto of the 21st Century” and the “ Bible of Globalization Criticism ”. But it also met with clear criticism. During the period, Jörg Lau complained about the “ pseudoscientific droning” and the widespread pathos of the book: Many passages “ shimmered deliriously between Nietzschean male fantasy and oily kitsch for liberation”. In terms of content, it is about the reconciliation of numerous Marxist prognoses that have not materialized with the finding that capitalism is still vital worldwide, which Lau comments:

"The thought that there may be nothing to be reconciled, that the theories in question were simply wrong and have been refuted by the course of history, is not even allowed."

The American historian Matthew Connolly dismissed the book in 2006 as "413 pages full of platitudes".

See also

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ David Salomon: Capitalism and Aggression - Notes on Classical Theories of Imperialism. In: Jens Steek and Leonie Holthaus (eds.): Beyond the anarchy. World order drafts in the early 20th century. Campus, Frankfurt am Main 2014, p. 149.
  2. ^ Gert Krell and Peter Schlotter : Concepts of world order in international relations . In: Carlo Masala and Frank Sauer (eds.): Handbook of International Relations . springer VS, Wiesbaden 2017, p. 34.
  3. ↑ Patrick Moreau and Eva Steinborn: The movement of the Altermondialisten. A danger to democracy? In: Uwe Backes and Eckhard Jesse (eds.): Threats to freedom. Extremist ideologies in comparison. Vandenhoeck & Ruprecht, Göttingen 2006, p. 159.
  4. ↑ So Slavoj Žižek on the book's dust jacket .
  5. ↑ Patrick Moreau and Eva Steinborn: The movement of the Altermondialisten. A danger to democracy? In: Uwe Backes and Eckhard Jesse (eds.): Threats to freedom. Extremist ideologies in comparison. Vandenhoeck & Ruprecht, Göttingen 2006, p. 159.
  6. ^ Jörg Lau: Biopower and Communism . In: Die Zeit from May 23, 2002, accessed on August 23, 2017.
  7. ↑ quoted from Andreas Eckert: How imperial is America's policy? In: FAZ.NET , April 24, 2006, accessed on August 23, 2017.

literature

  • Michael Hardt, Antonio Negri: Empire. Globalization as a new Roman order, awaiting its early Christians . 2000
  • Michael Hardt, Antonio Negri: Empire. The new world order . Frankfurt am Main: Campus 2002, ISBN 3-593-37230-4
  • Michael Hardt, Antonio Negri: Multitude. War and Democracy in the Empire . Frankfurt am Main: Campus 2004, ISBN 3-593-37410-2
  • Marc Ziegler: The Empire and the Republicanism of the crowd , in: Oliver wing / Reinhard Heil / Andreas Hetzel (eds.): The return of the political. Democracy Theories Today . Scientific Book Society Darmstadt, Darmstadt 2004, ISBN 3-534-17435-6 . Reading sample
  • Manfred Lauermann: Antonio Negri / Michael Hardt. In: Stephan Moebius & Dirk Quadflieg (eds.): Culture. Present theories . Wiesbaden: VS Verlag für Sozialwissenschaften, 2006, ISBN 3-531-14519-3
  • Röteln, Die (Ed.): "Life does not live". Postmodern subjectivity and the urge to biopolitics , ISBN 3-935843-52-6
  • Detlef Hartmann: »Empire« - Left ticket for the journey to the right. Upheavals in philosophy politics Hardt / Negri, Sloterdijk, Foucault , ISBN 3-935936-15-X
  • Marianne Pieper, Thomas Atzert, Serhat Karakayali, Vassilis Tsianos (eds.): Empire and the biopolitical turn: The international discussion following Hardt and Negri Frankfurt, 2007, ISBN 3-593-37541-9 .
  • Philipp Metzger: The theory of value of postoperaism: representation, criticism and approximation Marburg, Tectum, ISBN 978-3-828-82573-4

Web links

Criticism of Negri / Empire