Footnotes

1

revised from a review prepared for the Fourth Conference of North American and Cuban Philosophers--Reinventing Socialism: The View From Cuba. Comision 6: Socialism and the World Capitalist System; Christopher Chase-Dunn, organizer. American contributors include Terry Boswell, Martin Murray, Jeffrey Paige and Chase-Dunn. May 29-June 12, 1992, Havana. I regret that the Cuban papers are available to this draft. Return

2

I have brought along a set of basic readings, videos, and offer a tutorial for those here assembled should they care to learn a bit about nonlinear dynamics as they apply to social phenomena. Return

3

Basic research has not yet been done however the key parameters in transforming a political economy are, most likely, bifurcations in class, status and power. Bifurcations in wealth alter access to essential goods; bifurcations in status degrade one people in the eyes of another; bifurcations in power enable one people to subjugate another. See Briggs and Peat (p. 58) for a very accessible treatment of the process by which disorder increases. Return

4

I must say that neither Richard Nixon, Ronald Reagan or George Bush were president of the USA. Rather they were engineering corporativist policy for the big Seven; presiding over the Global economy rather than a national and conservative agenda--much to the chagrin of their domestic right-wing base. Nixon/Reagan/Bush gave cultural capital to the indigenous Right wing but fiscal policy is international. Racial, gender, and ethnic privilege sit within the logics of core finance capital but not national protectionism. Presidents can be pro-life, oppose 'unfair quotas,' advocate the strong family (read mother stays home and provides unpaid domestic services to household) as well as support the right of cities and states to bear the burden of the fiscal crises but there is no presidential candidate in sight who will speak of both economic justice and social justice in the global world economy. If we want the goods, we have to stay at the top of the global economy and we can't do that with national corporativism. Small business and large will have to compete with third world firms with cheap labor and cheaper resources. Return

5

Working, as I do from the Chaos paradigm, I see pattern emerging which guide policy. In Chaos theory, there are points at which human agency is far more effective than at other points. See the paper, Chaos and Human Agency as well as basic readings in Chaos theory cited in the References. Return

6

Presented at the Annual Meetings of the Michigan Sociological Association, Grand Rapids, Michigan. 11-12 Oct., 1991. Return