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Abstract

Under Gramsci’s framework of hegemony, and Gill’s concept of the transnational historic bloc, Greece’s bailout program has shown to be a dynamic example of where the continuous patterns of dominant social class interactions have manifested as the objective reality of everyday life, operating amongst a global economic governance that coalesces these interactions to form a coherent hegemon. My exposition of the International Monetary Fund and the European Union is based on the method developed by Robert Cox, historical structures, which takes a sphere of human activity, in its historically located totality, and analyses it through three structural configurations; material capabilities, ideas and institutions. Due to the scope of my research, I was unable to explore the full geographical reach of the transnational historic bloc. Therefore, I have omitted any focus on Japan, the third trilateral pole of contemporary capitalism, though I do not intend for this omission to be reductive of Japans crucial role in maintaining the inter-state hegemony of the bloc.

Conclusively, this study briefly explores the possibilities of a new world order, embodied by the growing power of countries that represent alternative models of economic development, as a counter-hegemonic project that fundamentally challenges the transnational historic bloc and its global hegemony. Finally, I outline some of the challenges faced by Europe’s historic bloc, as it is challenged both internally and externally amidst a rapidly changing global environment. These challenges foreshadow increasingly important developments within the global political economy, which therefore warrant further research on the development of rival social classes, the growth of counter-hegemonic projects and the future of a US-European hegemony.

Course: International Relations - BA (Hons)

Date Deposited: 2021-03-11

URI/permalink: https://library.port.ac.uk/dissert/dis13677.html