A tribute to Giovanni Arrighi

Abstract

The article offers an overview of Arrighi’s opus and describes the author’s personal friendship and professional collaboration with him, as well as Arrighi’s important contribution to the understanding of contemporary capitalism. It is argued that it is worthwhile to further develop Arrighi’s analysis of capitalism by reflecting on core-periphery conflicts and class struggles. To explain the enduring dominance of the core states, the concept of the ‘five new monopolies’ is proposed, which replaces the old industrial monopoly of the core. Moreover, the article introduces the ‘law of globalized value’ as a completion of the (incomplete) Marxist laws of the transformation of value: In the globalized capitalist system, imperialist rent may be measured by globalized prices. This further transformation has to be taken into account in order to achieve a more sophisticated analysis as well as feasible political perspectives.