A issue of interest, and hopefuly one that is pertinent to the WST discourse:
Have other Kondratieff B phases (similar to the one we are presently
experiencing) coincided with a lack of anti-systemic movements?
What factors can explain the decline of the influence of anti-systemic
movements in the world-system?
Are people simply more sheepish nowaday due to the collapse of the USSR as
a viable model of an alternative socio-economic order?
Is the rise of crime on a global level an answer to class polarizations?
If Wallerstein's concept that "liberalism" and the State served to
control and funnel the demands of the "dangerous classes"in the 19th and
20th century, couldn't the lack of "liberalism" as a legitimizing
ideology of the state and the lack of "stateness" lead to uncontrollable
social explosions in the 21st century, primarily taking the form of what
today we deem as "crime?"
I am not a sociologist, but it seems that on a micro level, the the
family structure and religious institutions purvey the individual with a
system of ethics, that can insure the loyalty of a marginalized
individual toward a social system that does not benefit him or her. The
decline of these institutions and the decline of "liberalism"
(ideologies grounded in western ideas of progress and modernity) allows
for the unchecked expression of discontent bred from subjugation without
hope of betterment. With no agenda to capture state power, gangsterism
(LA style) and riots would be the norm, put down by sheer brute force.
Was not banditry the only alternative to serfdom in medeival europe?
It seems that the anti-sytemic movements of medieval europe were usually
various forms of heretical proto-protestantism, revolving around a
rebellion against the church and feudal order. Yet the average
disgruntled peasant was more likely to become a bandit than a part of a
heretical rebellious sect.
Can we speak of a depoliticized anti-systemic movement?