hardt&negri's "empire"

Elson-

I have the book on my shelf and plan to read it one of these days -- I've
been following Negri's theories since the early-mid 80s.

But I don't expect to find anything to challenge any variant of
world-system theory for one simple reason -- Negri has never incorporated
the "polarization of actually existing capitalism" (Amin's term) into his
theory.  He, in that sense, is a social democratic theorist, and is
perpetually wrong for that reason.  He keeps making apocalyptic
predictions, either positive or negative, that don't come true because his
analysis basically operates within a societal framework, and projects
this globally.  Key here is his analysis of the real subsumption of labor
in "The Politics of Subversion."

You can't just have a "global Sweden," or global workers' council for
that matter, however admirable you might find one or another of those
goals to be.  Negri is simply not as deep as the entire
dependency/world-system school in that regard, not as accurate in updating
Marx. 

The reason I want to read the book is for a more modest reason -- I
believe it may have useful insights into the developments in the core,
especially among core elites, and possibly among the exploited as well.

RH