Who Governs? Networks of Power in World Society
Strange, Susan. “Who Governs? Networks of Power in World Society.” Hitotsubashi Journal of Law and Politics Special Issue (1994): 5-17.
Starting from Strange’s response to Waltz’s (in)famous London School of Economic lecture (see Millennium: 22/2 - Summer 1993) in this article she first argues for a wider reading of politics – not just what states do. She then briefly summarises her arguments regarding structural power before discussing the roles states have historically played as producers of security, credit, market relations and environment. The power over finance and environment has moved to centre stage, but states have been losing relative power over these areas. But this is not to agree with the America-in-decline writers. Rather Strange argues that the US. retains structural power, which the non-US Group of Seven states, through joint action need to encourage Americans to recognise. This will enable the US. to once again act as hegemon for the general good. America’s ability to supply market public goods needs to be matched by its will to do so, through diplomatic pressure. This is one of the few pieces where Strange makes her underlying prescriptive stance on the need for American leadership completely explicit.
Reprinted in: Authority and Markets: Susan Strange’s Writings on International Political Economy, edited by Roger Tooze and Christopher May. Basingstoke: Palgrave Macmillan, 2002.
Keywords: Hegemony; States; Structural Power, Power; Theory; United States