International Political Economy

INTERNATIONAL POLITICAL ECONOMY
“Hegemonic Stability and Balance of Power”

Nowadays the world is passing through several changes that are developing a new way for international politics and economy. The global GDP shows that in 2009 the world Gross Domestic Product, had -0.8 percent of growth, leaded by the debacle of United States economy that had the -2.6 percent growth.

These changesare consequence of the behavior of U.S. economy and political resolutions and took to the entire world to a recession or crisis, with its origin in the credit system and public debt, stroking in house mortgage and hitting investments of multinational companies.

Even though the U.S. are the main cause of this crisis that now is affecting with a major effect over Europe, is still the main reasonto survive and continue the global economical growth, directing the global decisions as the hegemonic state.

To understand why the U.S. is still the dominant state let’s understand what is necessary to be in this concept:

* The capability to enforce the rules of the system,
* The will to do so, and
* A commitment to a system which is perceived as mutually beneficial to themajor states.

This capability rests upon three attributes, a large growing economy, the dominance in a leading technological or economic sector and the political power backed up by projective military power.

The US has the largest and most technologically powerful economy in the world, with a per capita GDP of $47,200. In this market-oriented economy, private individuals and business firmsmake most of the decisions, and the federal and state governments buy needed goods and services predominantly in the private marketplace.

US firms are at or near the forefront in technological advances, especially in computers and in medical, aerospace, and military equipment; their advantage has narrowed since the end of World War II. The onrush of technology largely explains the gradualdevelopment of a "two-tier labor market" in which those at the bottom lack the education and the professional/technical skills of those at the top and, more and more, fail to get comparable pay raises, health insurance coverage, and other benefits. Since 1975, practically all the gains in household income have gone to the top 20% of households. The war in March-April 2003 between a US-led coalition andIraq, and the subsequent occupation of Iraq, required major shifts in national resources to the military.

Those facts are clearly evidence of the hegemonic power of the U.S. over the world, even if they are passing through an economical crisis. This leadership over the world for the ally countries is considered benign, but for those countries that threat the U.S. interests, are consideredcoercive.

The administrations by Bush father and Bill Clinton showed how U.S. are will to share a benign hegemonic over countries, the free trade agreements, the support to peace military actions and the agree with the U.S.S.R. and China after concluding the cold war, are signs of this kind of hegemony. However those experiences explains that when their vital interests are in risk their militarypower and the self-defense system is effectively used, even though they do it by their own or with just some allies like Bush son administration.

The stability of the international system, requires a single dominant sate to articulate and enforce the rules of interaction among the most important members of the system. Several exposures of this theory in the 1970’s supposed that changes in thedistribution cappabilities affect the world economy. This theory argued that the overwheliming dominance of one country was necessary for the existence of an open and stable world economy.

The recent financial crisis was caused by the crisis in the U.S., we can probe this statement with the analysis of the GDP growth for U.S. and the world.
According to the information of the CIA world...