Friday, April 10, 2020
Word Personal Character Essay Sample
Word Personal Character Essay SampleA word personal character essay sample is an extremely important writing tool that allows an essay to make its statement more effective. When writing a personal essay, you must remember that every word you choose must be carefully considered. You must also keep in mind that no single word can sum up your entire thoughts in a matter of minutes.A good essay will stand out from the crowd and sound catchy when the words you use are not confusing. The words you choose must be able to capture the attention of your readers without using the wrong words. In fact, it would not be fair if the words you chose were able to do this.Some people are afraid to use the word 'I'my' because they do not want to come across as trying to be too smart. While it is true that some people dislike having their statement so personal, you should not get offended if someone does not want to talk about themselves. You have to remember that everyone has their own opinion.If you w rite a description of your feelings about the topic, you can be sure that the readers will appreciate it. The next time you will write an essay, you will have to think about the words you will use. Do not use any unnecessary words like 'I'my' and do not try to sound smart.You need to choose the right words to present the right kind of information in your personal essay. The best way to get the information you need in an easy manner is to use short and easy to read sentences. The personal character essay sample can help you in this.Word writing is a skill that must be mastered if you want to succeed in writing. If you fail to learn how to write well, you may find yourself taking so long to finish your essay that you do not even know what you are going to say when you finally get to the end. The best way to learn how to properly word your essay is to look for the free word personal character essay sample. These free samples help you to find the best words to use in your essay and save you the money you would spend in a school.The free word personal character essay sample is designed to help you create your own personal essay without paying a cent. You can easily access this article to get more information on how to learn how to correctly write your own personal essay.
Thursday, March 19, 2020
Adoption1 essays
Adoption1 essays Adoption is an alternative way to have a family; it is a lifetime decision that should be made very cautiously. Adoption is a process where parents are supplied for children whose biological parents are deceased, or for those children whose biological parents are unable or unwilling to provide for their care. Adoption creates a parent-child relationship recognized for all purposes including: child support obligations, inheritance rights and custody(Aigner p 10). The children are provided for childless couples or individuals interested in becoming parents. According to Dr. Ruth Mc. Roy at the UT School of Social work, there are approximately 5,000,000 US births each year. Out of that approximation 118,000 are adoptions. Adoption is traced back to the bible. It is known that the Pharaohs wife adopted Moses, and Jesus was even adopted by Joseph. Adoption even goes as far back as the Greeks, Romans, Egyptians, and even the Babylonians. There were guidelines for adoption written in the Babylonian Code of Hammurabi, the oldest set of written laws, and the practice of adoption Gradually became the institution of adoption, as the legal guidelines evolved through the Holy Roman Empire, the kingdoms of Europe and Asia, and finally, the United States and the Americas. It is recorded that Judaism and Christianity was founded on the idea of open adoption. Before 1850, there were no laws governing adoption. Kids would just be given away without any questions; it was economically motivated because of the circumstances that existed. People living in the city would give up their kids because they couldnt afford to take care of their children. Farmers loved to receive them because they were able to make them help out on the farm. In 1850 adoption became legally recognized in the United States. The government began making minimal standards for adoption, hoping that the old way of adoption wou...
Monday, March 2, 2020
Get the Url of a Hyperlink in a TWebBrowser Document
Get the Url of a Hyperlink in a TWebBrowser Document The TWebBrowser Delphi component provides access to the Web browser functionality from your Delphi applications. In most situations you use the TWebBrowser to display HTML documents to the user - thus creating your own version of the (Internet Explorer) Web browser. Note that the TWebBrowser can also display Word documents, for example. A very nice feature of a Browser is to display link information, for example, in the status bar, when the mouse hovers over a link in a document. The TWebBrowser does not expose an event like OnMouseMove. Even if such an event would exist it would be fired for the TWebBrowser component - NOT for the document being displayed inside the TWebBrowser. In order to provide such information (and much more, as you will see in a moment) in your Delphi application using the TWebBrowser component, a technique called events sinking must be implemeted. WebBrowser Event Sink To navigate to a web page using the TWebBrowser component you call the Navigate method. The Document property of the TWebBrowser returns an IHTMLDocument2 value (for web documents). This interface is used to retrieve information about a document, to examine and modify the HTML elements and text within the document, and to process related events. To get the href attribute (link) of an a tag inside a document, while the mouse hovers over a document, you need to react on the onmousemove event of the IHTMLDocument2. Here are the steps to sink events for the currently loaded document: Sink the WebBrowser controls events in the DocumentComplete event raised by the TWebBrowser. This event is fired when the document is fully loaded into the Web Browser.Inside DocumentComplete, retrieve the WebBrowsers document object and sink the HtmlDocumentEvents interface.Handle the event you are interested in.Clear the sink in the in BeforeNavigate2 - that is when the new document is loaded in the Web Browser. HTML Document OnMouseMove Since we are interested in the HREF attribute of an A element - in order to show the URL of a link the mouse is over, we will sink the onmousemove event. The procedure to get the tag (and its attributes) below the mouse can be defined as: var   htmlDoc : IHTMLDocument2; ... procedure TForm1.Document_OnMouseOver; var   element : IHTMLElement; begin   if htmlDoc nil then Exit;   element : htmlDoc.parentWindow.event.srcElement;   elementInfo.Clear;   if LowerCase(element.tagName) a then   begin     ShowMessage(Link, HREF : element.getAttribute(href,0)]) ;   end   else if LowerCase(element.tagName) img then   begin     ShowMessage(IMAGE, SRC : element.getAttribute(src,0)]) ;   end   else   begin     elementInfo.Lines.Add(Format(TAG : %s,[element.tagName])) ;   end; end; (*Document_OnMouseOver*) As explained above, we attach to the onmousemove event of a document in the OnDocumentComplete event of a TWebBrowser: procedure TForm1.WebBrowser1DocumentComplete(   ASender: TObject;   const pDisp: IDispatch;   var URL: OleVariant) ; begin   if Assigned(WebBrowser1.Document) then   begin     htmlDoc : WebBrowser1.Document as IHTMLDocument2;     htmlDoc.onmouseover : (TEventObject.Create(Document_OnMouseOver) as IDispatch) ;   end; end; (*WebBrowser1DocumentComplete*) And this is where the problems arise! As you might guess the onmousemove event is *not* a usual event - as are those we are used to work with in Delphi. The onmousemove expects a pointer to a variable of type VARIANT of type VT_DISPATCH that receives the IDispatch interface of an object with a default method that is invoked when the event occurs. In order to attach a Delphi procedure to onmousemove you need to create a wrapper that implements IDispatch and raises your event in its Invoke method. Heres the TEventObject interface: TEventObject class(TInterfacedObject, IDispatch) private   FOnEvent: TObjectProcedure; protected   function GetTypeInfoCount(out Count: Integer): HResult; stdcall;   function GetTypeInfo(Index, LocaleID: Integer; out TypeInfo): HResult; stdcall;   function GetIDsOfNames(const IID: TGUID; Names: Pointer; NameCount, LocaleID: Integer; DispIDs: Pointer): HResult; stdcall;   function Invoke(DispID: Integer; const IID: TGUID; LocaleID: Integer; Flags: Word; var Params; VarResult, ExcepInfo, ArgErr: Pointer): HResult; stdcall; public   constructor Create(const OnEvent: TObjectProcedure) ;   property OnEvent: TObjectProcedure read FOnEvent write FOnEvent;   end; Heres how to implement event sinking for a document displayed by the TWebBrowser component - and get the info of a HTML element below the mouse. TWebBrowser Document Event Sinking Example Download Drop a TWebBrowser (WebBrowser1) on a Form (Form1). Add a TMemo (elementInfo)... unit Unit1;interfaceuses  Windows, Messages, SysUtils, Variants, Classes, Graphics, Controls, Forms,  Dialogs, OleCtrls, SHDocVw, MSHTML, ActiveX, StdCtrls;type  TObjectProcedure procedure of object;  TEventObject class(TInterfacedObject, IDispatch)  private    FOnEvent: TObjectProcedure;  protected    function GetTypeInfoCount(out Count: Integer): HResult; stdcall;    function GetTypeInfo(Index, LocaleID: Integer; out TypeInfo): HResult; stdcall;    function GetIDsOfNames(const IID: TGUID; Names: Pointer; NameCount, LocaleID: Integer; DispIDs: Pointer): HResult; stdcall;    function Invoke(DispID: Integer; const IID: TGUID; LocaleID: Integer; Flags: Word; var Params; VarResult, ExcepInfo, ArgErr: Pointer): HResult; stdcall;  public    constructor Create(const OnEvent: TObjectProcedure) ;    property OnEvent: TObjectProcedure read FOnEvent writ e FOnEvent;  end;  TForm1 class(TForm)    WebBrowser1: TWebBrowser;    elementInfo: TMemo;    procedure WebBrowser1BeforeNavigate2(ASender: TObject; const pDisp: IDispatch; var URL, Flags, TargetFrameName, PostData, Headers: OleVariant; var Cancel: WordBool) ;    procedure WebBrowser1DocumentComplete(ASender: TObject; const pDisp: IDispatch; var URL: OleVariant) ;    procedure FormCreate(Sender: TObject) ;  private    procedure Document_OnMouseOver;  public    { Public declarations }  end;var  Form1: TForm1;  htmlDoc : IHTMLDocument2;implementation{$R *.dfm}procedure TForm1.Document_OnMouseOver;var  element : IHTMLElement;begin  if htmlDoc nil then Exit;  element : htmlDoc.parentWindow.event.srcElement;  elementInfo.Clear;  if LowerCase(element.tagName) a then  begin    elementInfo.Lines. Add(LINK info...) ;    elementInfo.Lines.Add(Format(HREF : %s,[element.getAttribute(href,0)])) ;  end  else if LowerCase(element.tagName) img then  begin    elementInfo.Lines.Add(IMAGE info...) ;    elementInfo.Lines.Add(Format(SRC : %s,[element.getAttribute(src,0)])) ;  end  else  begin    elementInfo.Lines.Add(Format(TAG : %s,[element.tagName])) ;  end;end; (*Document_OnMouseOver*)procedure TForm1.FormCreate(Sender: TObject) ;begin  WebBrowser1.Navigate(http://delphi.about.com) ;  elementInfo.Clear;  elementInfo.Lines.Add(Move your mouse over the document...) ;end; (*FormCreate*)procedure TForm1.WebBrowser1BeforeNavigate2(ASender: TObject; const pDisp: IDispatch; var URL, Flags, TargetFrameName, PostData, Headers: OleVariant; var Cancel: WordBool) ;begin  htmlDoc : nil;end; (*WebBrowser1BeforeNavigate2*)procedure TForm1.WebBrowser1DocumentComplete(ASend er: TObject; const pDisp: IDispatch; var URL: OleVariant) ;begin  if Assigned(WebBrowser1.Document) then  begin    htmlDoc : WebBrowser1.Document as IHTMLDocument2;    htmlDoc.onmouseover : (TEventObject.Create(Document_OnMouseOver) as IDispatch) ;  end;end; (*WebBrowser1DocumentComplete*){ TEventObject }constructor TEventObject.Create(const OnEvent: TObjectProcedure) ;begin  inherited Create;  FOnEvent : OnEvent;end;function TEventObject.GetIDsOfNames(const IID: TGUID; Names: Pointer; NameCount, LocaleID: Integer; DispIDs: Pointer): HResult;begin  Result : E_NOTIMPL;end;function TEventObject.GetTypeInfo(Index, LocaleID: Integer; out TypeInfo): HResult;begin  Result : E_NOTIMPL;end;function TEventObject.GetTypeInfoCount(out Count: Integer): HResult;begin  Result : E_NOTIMPL;end;function TEventObject.Invoke(DispID: Integer; const IID: TGUID; LocaleID: Integer; Flags: Word; var Params; VarResult, ExcepIn fo, ArgErr: Pointer): HResult;begin  if (DispID DISPID_VALUE) then  begin    if Assigned(FOnEvent) then FOnEvent;    Result : S_OK;  end  else Result : E_NOTIMPL;end;end.
Saturday, February 15, 2020
An Interpretation of Chris Ofili's Afrodizzia Essay
An Interpretation of Chris Ofili's Afrodizzia - Essay Example To comprehend Chris Ofili’s work and interpret it in a fair manner, we have to identify styles that are consistent with his work. Ofili’s work is recognizable by the layered surfaces of different materials. He borrows from the works of other artists and incorporates them into his work. An example is the way he uses the cut out of photographs from magazines. Another feature common among Ofili’s work is the size of his paintings. He does most of his work on six by eight feet canvases. Not that size means anything significant but I choose not to ignore it as a factor in the interpretation of his work. In my opinion, he desires to â€Å"magnify†the message in his works. I will give the example of his controversial painting the â€Å"Holy Virgin Mary†which has had its admirers and condemners. The work was a brazen play on religion and it could not be ignored largely because of its depiction of the Black Madonna. I argue that the size of that painting w as an intention to magnify that depiction as with all other Ofili’s paintings. Lastly, Ofili uses cow dung in most of his exertion. He said that the elephant dung was inspired by his visit to Zimbabwe during his masters at the Royal College of Art. He saw cave paintings which inspires his styles including his use of dung. He has often contended that the dung is meant to bring out the â€Å"ugliness†of the beauty of his paintings. It is important to note that Mr. Ofili derives his inspiration to make art from the social and political events affecting him or the community in general. Most of his paintings document the issues affecting black people between the 70s and 90s. An example is â€Å"No Woman No Cry†which was inspired by racism against black in Britain. In his paintings also, Ofili asserts his thoughts on religion, popular culture and music (hip hop). The â€Å"Holy Virgin Mary†is a good example of where Ofili makes a bold but humorous statement on the Roman Catholic faith (Kleiner, 2008, p. 55). â€Å"Afrodizzia†looks like a jewel. The medium used in the base composition of the painting is acrylic paint with oil resin, glitter, paper collage; map pins and elephant compost. The collage, the paint and the lines drawings in the piece make it quite a sight. Ofili has used red, yellow and orange colors in the painting to signify energy, excitement and radiance. These are the same words that could be used to describe the color scheme. The white background of the painting is a probable allusion to a clean sheet that will be â€Å"stained†by elephant dung. The introduction of green and blue colors creates a clash that can be directly interpreted to signify Ofili’s search for identity. Color in art speaks of the mood of the piece in study. Ofili’s decision to use many colors in an unspecified pattern shows a clash of emotions, identity and character. â€Å"Afrodizzia â€Å"was painted during a period fraught with the outcomes of racial tension in Great Britain. It was completed in 1996, three years after the racist murder of Stephen Lawrence by six white youths (Campbell 1993) and during the Macpherson enquiry into his death. This tension had/has been ongoing since the Brixton riots in 1981 with Macpherson finding that certain institutions in Britain were racist and incompetent. Perhaps, Chris Ofili represented
Sunday, February 2, 2020
(Corporate) Product Selection & Strategy Formulation Essay
(Corporate) Product Selection & Strategy Formulation - Essay Example Apple Inc is even enjoying the overwhelming performance in the technology industry is associated with the continuous success and dominance (Abraham 2012). In corporate strategy there are two types of diversification which are: linked and constrained. Companies that use linked diversification enter new business when they are linked with other business they are already operating, if they use constrained diversification, they enter only in new business if it is based on core resources. Apple uses the constrained diversification, Apple is a personal computer company and its business utilizes its core resources in developing the hardware and software such as, iPod, iPad, iPhone, and Apple TV that allows the Apple to share its resources among the business. This even creates the economics of scope, and that create cost savings for Apple Inc., as their resources are shared across all the multiple businesses. Apple follows two strategies which are: Growth Strategy and Stability strategy (Abraham 2012). As the company has not reached to the optimum performance; therefore, there is a requirement for reaching at the optimum performance, this helps the company in expanding its profits, and market share, sales, and market coverage and product mix among the other accounting variables and market. Some of the other strategies utilized for enhancing eth growth include the market penetration enhancement in order to ensure the provision of efficient services. Another growth strategy of the Company is vertical integration, which is an efficient strategy for enhancing the growth, in that Apple Inc., takes activities which are performed by its suppliers or business in its distribution or channel. Diversification strategy is also used by the company in taking effective move for enhancing the growth; in this case the company must use the potential business ventures for enhancing its operations. The
Saturday, January 25, 2020
Essay --
3) There are many causes of child labour, but the biggest cause is money. People build factories in poor areas so that it would attract cheap labour which are the children that they target. Another cause is the lack of protection from the government; the businesses help the economy grow and make the country successful. If the government stops child labour, then the businesses may threaten to move to another country that would also welcome the chance to look good. The government is too greedy and is willing to put children’s lives in danger. Poverty is another reason for child labour. The many that are poor do not have enough money to support their children, so they do not send their children to school. The majority of people don’t have a house to live in, and they don’t have enough money to buy food. So since they don’t go to school, parents send them to work, or they sell their child for money. 4) Child labour effects the knowledge, economy and condtions of the children. When parents are in need of money, they stop their kids from going school and send them to work. The children the...
Friday, January 17, 2020
The hegemonic decline of the United States and the eastward shift in the global capitalist economy
Abstract The Great Recession of 2007-8 has exposed the inherent weakness of the Western economies, whose growth had been fuelled on heavy indebtedness. This dissertation intends to broach the implications of the Great Recession of 2007-8 by applying the theoretical concepts related to the notion of hegemony in order to determine to what extent there is a geopolitical shift in favour of China, pursuant to the decline of the United States. The dissertation also utilizes the theory of economic crisis in order to ascertain the implications of the Great Recession and corroborate the idea of a hegemonic shift to the East. Objectives The dissertation seeks to intervene in a central debate of our times in the field of Political Economy of International Relations: the possible decline of United States’ â€Å"hegemony†and a possible shift of hegemony towards East Asia, especially China, given East Asia’s growing role in the world economy. This trend has exacerbated since the onset of the Great Recession of 2007-8. Using the theoretical framework of hegemony, I intend to find out to which extent the universalisation of the economic superstructure renders the notion of American hegemony obsolete. A Marxian model of interpretation can potentially shed light into the reasons which China, with competitive advantages that vastly exceed those of the United States will continue to accumulate power and establish itself as the new hegemon. Research questions What is the best way to conceptualise hegemony at the international level in the context of the Great Recession of 2007-8? What elements have to be analysed in order to assess hegemony shifts in Capitalist Global Political EconomyHow does this apply to the crisis 2007-2008? What are the signs that American power decliningWhat are the potential implications of that decline? Did the Great Recession of 2007-8 create an irretrievable hegemonic shift towards the Pacific? Theoretical framework The dissertation is divided into two parts. The first is theoretical and discusses the notion of hegemony at the international level. The second part elaborates on the theory of crises. The way in which hegemony has been conceptualised by influential authors such as Arrighi, Cox, Organski and Kindleberger is critically examined. In particular, the dissertation proposes a re-reading of Gramsci stressing the role of nation states and both elements, coercion and consensus, in the exercise of hegemony. Concerning crises, the dissertation seeks to elaborate an integral and organic theory of economic crises based on Marx, contrasting the latter with recently developed neo-Marxist perspectives, such as the ones espoused by David Harvey and Ernest Mandel. Methodology The method for tackling this dissertation will involve a theoretical treatment of hegemony and the causes of economic crisis. Within that particular methodological framework, I intend to analyse the Great Recession of 2007-8 and its implications for the shift taking place, with the transfer of hegemonic power from the United States to China. Chapter one will be a treatment of the theoretical sources dealing with the notion of ‘hegemony’, as applied to shifts in the international political system. Chapter two deals with the nature of economic crises and long economic cycles, as applied to the hegemonic shift taking place. Chapter three will examine the hegemonic shift taking place as a result of the Great Recession of 2007-8 and how the next long cycle could favour the transition from a US-dominated system to a Chinese-dominated one. I intend to use primary sources which will corroborate the economic and political decline of the United States as well as the rise of China, and analyse my findings through the prism of the Great Recession of 2007-8. I will also utilise theoretical material (as outlined above) in order to examine to what extent there is a hegemonic shift taking place within the context of the ongoing economic crisis of the United States and the West. Literature review Robert Cox uses the Gramscian notion of hegemony in order to expose the structures which arise from shifts in the organisation of the international economy. These structures are kept through consensual and coercive power relations. These power relations are marked by ideological practices which give it an aura of normality, therefore establishing a particular cultural hegemony. Significantly, Cox argued that although specific states may be the bearers of hegemony, at its most fundamental level the term relates to the rooting of a set of elites in different countries that acknowledge certain essential principle on the international economy (Cox in Gill, S. (Ed.), 1993: 42). According to Arrighi, hegemony becomes the added power that a dominant class has as a result of being able to universalise the issues which are capable of leading to conflict (Arrighi in Gill, S. (Ed.), 1993: 148). A state capable of exercising hegemony if it is able to lead the international political system in a particular direction and it is perceived by other states as pursuing the interests of the international community. However, the dominant state could also be interested in leading other countries into their own way of economic development (Arrighi, 1990: 367). Arrighi argues that the competition for resources that promoted the capitalist expansion of the European economy into the wider world is structural rather than conjunctural. Its strength resides in the ability to provoke creative destructions motivated by economic crises, giving rise to the technological breakthroughs that have sustained the process of globalisation (Arrighi, 1998: 128). Organski describes the rise of a hegemonic order in a situation in which powerful nations as well as middle and minor powers accept the given distribution of power and wealth and adhere to the same guidelines when it comes to diplomacy and commerce (Organski, 1969: 354). The international order that arises achieves its legitimacy through the ideology which underpins the ‘power differentials’ between the different states. When a power shift occurs, it may be accompanied by conflict amongst the great powers. This would very much depend on whether the challenger seeks to overhaul the rules of the game in the international political system (Organski, 1969: 354). Gilpin operates with a more deterministic notion of hegemonic cycles, positing that the resolution of a hegemonic war represents the start of another period of growth and eventual decline of a great power (Gilpin, 1981: 210). Kindleberger argues that the need to have a hegemon stems from the idea that only a domina nt power can provide collective goods. He maintains that the main danger that the international political faces is not the existence of too much power accumulated in one single hegemon but the presence of too many free riding states unwilling to exercise authority (Kindleberger, 1981: 253). Gramsci re-examines the Marxian model by positing that the cultural and political ‘base’ of a particular society is necessarily informed by the economic superstructure. The base includes categories such as the legal system, the prevailing ideology, the political make-up of the state and the cultural values of society. These categories are not involved in the production of goods but legitimate the ways in which the productive forces shape society: through surplus value extraction. Gramsci finds that the power of the dominant class goes far beyond the competencies of the state as it extends to the civil society, via institutions like schools, the press and cultural practices. The dominant class maintains hegemony by coopting the civil society, which is imbued with a particular ideology which ensures that the political status quo remains anchored in society and that it legitimates the way the productive forces operate (Holub, 1992: 103). Marx attributed the emergence of economic crises to the tendency of the rate of profit to fall (Marx, 1863). The requirement to provide the workforce with survival wages put limits on the exchange value of the labour capacity. This limits the surplus labour time and surplus value needed for the accumulation of profits. There is a requirement that capital be transformed in consumption, therefore placing another burden on the process of production. Limitations on the production of use value by the requirement to create exchange value and the requisite of private profit before the satisfaction of social needs means that there will be overproduction. Capitalism attempts to create the conditions to resolve the inner contradictions of capitalism, such as the creation of a credit system. However, according to Marxist theory, crises are temporarily resolved until a higher level of economic crisis is attained (McCarthy, 1990: 240). One of the ideas which Harvey puts forward in relation to the rise of neoliberal forms of globalisation is the policy of ‘accumulation by dispossession’, resulting in the centralisation of economic wealth and political power in the hands of a very reduced number of people through policies of dispossession. These policies imply stripping the publics of access to wealth. More precisely, ‘accumulation by dispossession’ entails the practice of financialisation, privatisation, upward state redistribution and the manipulation of crises. Harvey’s work is notably linked in an indirect manner to the ideas postulated by prominent public intellectuals of the Left such as Naomi Klein and Noam Chomsky, who also highlight the symbiosis between accumulation (upwards) and dispossession (downwards). These ideas seem to hark back to the classical Marxian template of a dialectic between the owners of the means of production and those who sell their labour at a fraction of its cost, living permanently in the ‘realm of necessity’ (Harvey, 2005). Mandel maintains the base/superstructure Gramscian symbiosis in its analysis of hegemonic relations in the post-World War Two era, claiming that it ushered in a ‘long-wave’ economic cycle of growth. The working class had been weakened by the effects of Fascism, which focused on the cooperation of the different social classes, and World War Two. Technology had increased the rate of profit, which produced impressive economic growth and accumulation of capital. Drawing on Gramsci, Mandel claims that it is impossible for the working class to capture civil society from a ‘war of position’ as this would lead to reformism instead of creating true change. Any attempt to seize the control of society must be done using a ‘war of maneouvre’. The working class, as a subject of social change, is not capable to capture society in a hegemonic way, as it has always been economically and culturally disenfranchised. Any revolutionary process of change must be dec isively quick. A drawn-out conflict would inevitably lead to an accommodation with the bourgeoisie (Mandel, 1995: 28). The theory of economic crisis is linked to the notion of ‘hegemony’ in its political aspects. Transformations taking place in the international economy, particularly those of the magnitude of the Great Recession of 2007-8, have the potential to create a fracture in the hegemonic order constituted after the end of the Cold War. To be sure, there is a process of political and economic convergence which arises out of the increased level of interconnectedness amongst states. This process of harmonisation has been marshalled by the marriage between democracy and the free market orientation typical of the American political personality which emerged amidst the triumphalist furore of the early 1990s (Fukuyama, 1992: 338). This emerging geostrategic situation steered the hegemonic path taken by the United States towards an expansion of its political personality to the wider world. The Great Recession of 2007-8 created a situation in which the tenets which sustained that hegemon y have been broken. China and the ‘Rest’ (i.e., the non-Western world) have been growing at a healthy rate whilst the West is still mired in an economic crisis which does not seem to have an end. This dissertation will endeavour to united both theoretical frameworks in order to determine to what extent the economic crisis will induce a change of hegemonic order. The most crucial aspect to be analysed is whether China will be able to rework the notion of ‘hegemony’ (which is a Western concept) in order to emerge as a potential challenger to the American dominion over the international order. The Great Recession of 2007-8 will potentially undermine the American military capabilities, which is the main element to be considered in the analysis of a putative hegemonic shift in favour of China. In addition, China seems to be interested in propping up its military capabilities. However, its geopolitical emphasis seems to be on forging commercial links with the Res t, rather than launching a frontal hegemonic challenge against the United States (Jacques, 2009: 22). Case study – The Great Recession of 2007-8 One of my research questions explores the possibility that the Great Recession of 2008 created a hegemonic shift towards the Pacific, specifically China. In some respects, the first stage of globalisation (1990-2008) was successful in creating an extensive network of international governance. The end of bipolarity gave rise to the ability to interconnect mankind by electronic means (personal computers, internet, fast processing of data). Globalisation has also created a uniformity of ideology amongst the nations, such as the concept of liberal democracy and free markets (Dilly, 1992: 59) Although some countries deviated from the norm of untrammelled capitalism after the localised financial crises of the 1990s (Russia, Argentina, etc), by and large there has been a trend towards ideological harmonisation, which also includes a growing concern for human rights. This is true for many countries, notably first world ones. The first stage of globalisation created an interdependence that in ternationalised production and consumption. Whilst the outsourcing of production created benefits for consumers, it also rendered nations incapable of protecting their resources, which are now shared with the rest of the world through its management by transnational economic interests, and managed their economy for the benefit of its populations. As Bobbitt argues, the market-state ushered in by globalisation has as its main purpose the maximisation of opportunities for its citizens instead of protecting their welfare (Bobbitt, 2002: 347). Since economic considerations have overtaken political ones, the increase rate of capitalist profit in the East means that China will continue to accumulate power due to its strategic competitive advantages, lower wages, a young labour force and a huge internal market. The challenges posed by the Great Recession exceed the capacity of individual states to be able to defend themselves. There is no nation, in the incipient stage of globalisation, which can act as steward and caretaker of the system. For example, the total flow of capital in the derivative industries vastly exceeds the size of the major economies of the world like the United States, the European Union and China ($531 tn as of September 2008). In addition, the first state of globalisation was chaotic, horizontal and disorderly. Globalisation brought in many positive elements for the world population, but also created many negative offshoots, which territorial states cannot possibly tackle on their own. The effects of global warming and natural resources degradation, the spread of disease, nuclear proliferation, humanitarian catastrophes and the threat of terrorism has one the one hand exposed the vulnerability of nation-states and created the need for common global action by supranati onal institutions that significantly erode their political sovereignty (Basch, L. et al, 1993: 67) The imperial overstrech that the United States suffers from has resulted in the accumulation of massive debts, which now total more than 100% of its GDP. In addition, its economy is about to be overtaken by China, which is still growing at very high rates (Jacques, 2009: 139). The second stage of globalisation will result in the erosion of hegemonic power of the United States. The Great Recession of 2008 provides an opportunity to recreate the global financial and economic structure as well as create more centralised supranational governance, as seen in the rise of the G20. One of the ways in which the crisis keeps melting down the political sovereignty of the nation-states is seen in the depreciation of the US dollar (the international reserve currency) due to the indiscriminate printing of money (Jansson, 2001: 44). One of the ways in which the second stage of globalisation could bring in a world-state is through the creation of currency harmonisation, possibly based on special drawing rights. The increased indebtedness of nations also harmonises the system towards a world-state, since the nation-state has to rely on a debt-based economy. The socialisation of banking losses through taxpayers’ dollars is also another variable to be reckoned with. The increased fragility of the system at local level creates greater opportunity for extra-national and supranational intervention. To be sure, the role of the nation-state has not gone away. However, their role is subordinated to the requirements of this increasingly emerging extraterritorial financial and economic structure. The reaction to this emerging harmonisation towards a world-state is already being seen in the different arrangements made between BRICS nations and commodity-rich countries seeking to replace the dollar as a medium of exchange (Suominen, 2012: 33) In turn, this will end up hurting the most powerful sovereign nation, which will find it increasingly difficult to maintain military hegemony without the ability to print out as many dollars as it needs. The erosion of political sovereignty as a result of the Great Recession of 2008 and the reaction to it by the ‘Second World’ goes hand in hand with the idea of privatisation of economic power, managed at supranational and extraterritorial level by powerful private concerns (Khanna, 2008: 41). These supranational concerns are in the process of setting up their own regulatory schemes, imposed on individual territorial states, which are finding it increasingly difficult to resist them. My preliminary findings show that the realignment of economic international systems is the main conduit by which harmonisation leading to an hegemonic shift in favour of China will be activated. In addition, there is a definite reaction by what I would call the Shanghai Cooperation Organisation bloc (notably China and Russia, but also the likes of India and Iran). The harmonisation process is proceeding apace in the West. This reaction in the Second World is generating its own kind of harmonisation. The political sovereignty of nations could also be further impaired by the conflict that will arise as a result of it. Trying to eliminate the logic of anarchy brings with it the possibility of conflict. A s Schmitt put it, the political cannot exist outside the realm of conflict. It is expected that the United States will not let China accumulate the necessary military capabilities in order to establish itself as the new hegemon. Preliminary findings There are several factors which enables us to think that a hegemonic transition is taking place. A massive, imposing display of Chinese-constructed fighter aircraft and other military equipment was used to commemorate the 60th anniversary of communist China’s founding, on 1 October, 2009. At the same time, China’s space industry was rapidly burgeoning and continuing to develop. Along with the fact that the Chinese economy continued to expand during a global recession and a rising position on the world political stage, these technological advances indicate China’s movement towards the status of a world superpower. While the rest of the world struggled in 2009, the Chinese economy exemplified a remarkable flexibility in returning to significant growth. The Chinese government attributes this economic resilience to China’s blend of communism with capitalism, in contrast to the laissez-faire approach taken by the West (Guthrie, 1999: 122). In early 2009, a migration of millions of workers from urban areas to rural locales resulted from the closure of factories that produced exports on the east coast and south coast of China. The steep price of fuel and food had put pressure on household budgets in 2008, and in order to halt inflation, stringent financial and credit policies were set in place. These policies caused the construction industry to dip, as well as a slump in the property market. In response, the Chinese government created a stimulus package in November 2008 that was worth 4 trillion yuan (about $586 billion). Approximately 50% of the stimulus package was set aside for improving infrastructure, such as railways and airports, primarily in rural regions, while a further 25% was designated for the Sichuan province, which had been severely affected by a May 2008 earthquake and was in need of rebuilding. Banks were ordered to increase lending, and the result was a 164% upsurge of loans in the first three quarters of 2009. This facilitated a rebound of the economy, which occurred far more quickly than in other countries. (Wright, 2010: 221). Additionally, the latter part of the year saw the recovery of exports, which set China up to overtake Germany as the top exporter world-wide. As a result, speculation grew as to whether China could reclaim the dominant position that it once held prior to the early 1800s, at which time it provided roughly one third of manufacturing in the world, compared to just 25% of manufacturing in the West. This outcome was rendered more probably by a trade deal with the Association of Southeast Asian Nations that transpired at the end of the year. As the world’s largest creditor, China had a symbiotic and mutually beneficial relationship with the U.S., the globe’s biggest debtor, that had become vital in the effort to rebalance the global economy. Zhou Xiaochuan, governor of the People’s Bank of China (PBOC) issued a statement on 23 March 2009 th at called for an international currency that would replace the U.S. dollar as the primary global currency and would remain unattached to individual countries; he argued that this currency would have increased stability over time. The People’s Bank of China also proposed that Special Drawing Rights, which were designed in 1969 by the IMF for utilisation between international institutions and governments, might be employed on a wider scale and used as payment in international finance and trade transactions. This would reduce fluctuations in price and the risks associated with these fluctuations. The initiative was made again at the yearly Group of Eight (G-8) summit that took place in Italy in July 2009. Delegates from China, India, Brazil, Mexico, and South Africa (also known as the â€Å"Group of Five) were also invited to the summit, where China, along with India and Russia (a G-8 member) called for an overhaul of the global financial system and a halt to dollar domination. In the latter part of September 2009, the president of the World Bank, Robert Zoellick, cautioned that the U.S. dollar faced an increasing threat due to the rising force of both the euro and the Chinese yuan. At this juncture China had surpassed Japan as the main creditor of the U.S.; there were concerns coming from Beijing that the $800.5 billion value of U.S. Treasury securities, along with other assets that constituted 60% of China’s foreign-exchange reserves and 30% of foreign-exchange reserves globally, would be attenuated by American debt and decreasing confidence in the U.S. dollar. China presented a temporary solution, which was to resist purchasing U.S. Treasury stock and, more significantly, to advocate the utilisation of the yuan as a world currency. (Kim, 2010: 49). Bibliography Arrighi, G., Capitalism and the Modern World-System: Rethinking the Non-debates of the 1970’s Review (Fernand Braudel Center), Vol. 21, No. 1 (1998), pp. 113-129 Arrighi, G. 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