LIBERAL HEGEMONY AND INEQUALITY IN THE 21ST CENTURY

Abstract

The subject of inequality represents a present phenomenon in the contemporary society, even though the issue was analyzed by various authors, since the beginning of the Industrial Age. Ideologues, philosophers, economists or social scientists devoted researches on the subject of inequality, offering various interpretations or solutions, more or less viable, about this issue. The present paper will try to argue, from the viewpoint of International Relations Theory, that social inequality represents the expression of a liberal hegemonic model, still influent at the international system. This hegemonic model is based on the liberal ideology, thus assuming the phenomenon and outcome of inequality as natural. From a theoretical point of view, this paper is based on the hegemonic stability theory, an approach from the International Relations Theory. The main actor which sustains this hegemonic model is represented by the United States, as the hegemonic power in the international system, the world leader that sustains the liberal political and economic institutions at the systemic level. From a methodological point of view, the research adopted a qualitative perspective, with the case study on the influence of the liberal hegemonic model on the subject of inequality.

Keywords

• hegemony
• inequality
• international order
• liberal ideology