Robert Gilpin Quotes

41 Sourced Quotes

The parallel existence and mutual interaction of "state" and "market" in the modern world create "political economy"; without both state and market there could be no political economy.

Robert Gilpin
When once asked what was missing from his classic textbook, Nobel laureate Paul Samuelson is reported to have responded, "the class struggle."

Robert Gilpin
A prolonged and massive increase in aggregate wealth per capita has taken place over several centuries.

Robert Gilpin
Trade is the oldest and most important economic nexus among nations. Indeed, trade along with war ha been central to the evolution of international relations.

Robert Gilpin
[In] the definition of international system... There is some "form of control" that regulates behavior and may range from informal rules of the system to formal institutions.... A view prevalent among many scholars of political science is that the essence of international relations is precisely the absence of control... a condition of anarchy...

Robert Gilpin
The economic success of the Reagan Administration was largely dependent upon the pyramiding of massive debt and the siphoning of capital from the rest of the world.

Robert Gilpin
In the abstract world of American economists, equations run both ways; they believe that by changing the sign of a variable from plus to minus or from minus to plus or the price and quantity of x or y, the direction of historical movement can be reversed.

Robert Gilpin
Specialization makes the welfare of the society vulnerable to the market and to political forces beyond national control.

Robert Gilpin
The historical record suggests that the transition to to a new hegemon has always been attended by what I have elsewhere called hegemonic war.

Robert Gilpin
The dreams of "leaving it up to the market" or of returning to a politically neutral gold standard cannot succeed because the nature of the monetary system has a profound impact on the interests of powerful groups and states. Affected groups and states will always try to intervene in the operation of the system to make it serve their interests.

Robert Gilpin
Japanese refer to Europe as a "museum" and America as a "farm."

Robert Gilpin
Ultimately... the hierarchy of prestige in an international system rests on economic and military power.

Robert Gilpin
A market is not politically neutral; its existence creates economic power which one actor can use against another.

Robert Gilpin
A precondition for political change lies in the disjuncture between the existing social system and the redistribution of power toward those actors who would benefit most from a change in the system.

Robert Gilpin
Through exploitation of its influence over global financial affairs, the United States has been able to cover the costs of its hegemonic position, preserve a false domestic prosperity, and mask the consequences of its relative political and economic decline.

Robert Gilpin
Despite its increased dependence on the international economy, America continues to behave as if it were either a closed economy or the leader whom everyone else should automatically follow.

Robert Gilpin
Structuralism argues that a liberal capitalist world economy tends to preserve or actually increase inequalities between developed and less developed economies.

Robert Gilpin
The relative stability of the system is... largely determined by its capacity to adjust to the demands of the actors affected by changing political and environmental conditions.

Robert Gilpin
How can the human race, whether for selfish or more cosmopolitan ends, understand and control the seemingly blind forces of history?

Robert Gilpin
Powerful groups set constraints on and may even determine the actions of state authority. They constitute the society that is protected by the state; their particular concept of justice reigns. The definition and functioning of property rights tend to advance their interest and welfare.... the basic domestic function of the state is to define and protect property rights of individuals and groups.... The primary external function of the state is to protect the property rights and personal security of its members vis-à-vis the citizens and actions of other states.

Robert Gilpin
Until the modern era there was no single international system, but rather several international systems, with little or no contact with another.

Robert Gilpin
One of the principal functions of war, and particularly... hegemonic war, is to determine the international hierarchy of prestige and thereby determine which states will in effect govern the international system.

Robert Gilpin
The core of the Marxist critique of capitalism is that although the individual capitalist is rational (as liberals assume), the capitalist system itself is irrational.

Robert Gilpin
The clustering of technological innovation in time and space helps explain both the uneven growth among nations and the rise and decline of hegemonic powers.

Robert Gilpin
Every dominant state, and particularly an empire, promotes a religion or ideology that justifies its domination over other states in the system.

Robert Gilpin
It would be premature to suggest that the nation-state is dead or dying.

Robert Gilpin
There is a pressing need to integrate the study of international economics with the study of international politics to deepen our comprehension of the forces at work in the world.

Robert Gilpin
In many societies the domestic social costs of adjustment to changing patterns of comparative advantage are believed to outweigh the advantages of further trade liberalization.

Robert Gilpin
Does the functioning of the world economy tend to concentrate wealth and power, or does it tend to diffuse it?

Robert Gilpin
The opposing tendencies of concentration and spread are of little consequence in the liberal model of political economy.

Robert Gilpin