Robert Gilpin Quotes

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.

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

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.

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

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

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.

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.

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.

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.

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

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

I was certain that I was not a Marxist, but I did believe firmly that a connection between economics and politics existed.

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.

The multinational corporation and international production reflect a world in which capital and technology have become increasingly mobile, while labor has remained relatively immobile.

These two opposed forms of social organization, the modern state and the market, have evolved together through recent centuries, and their mutual interactions have become increasingly crucial to the character and dynamics of international relations in our world.