In the United States, prominent researchers have produced compelling evidence that “economic elites and organized groups representing business interests have substantial independent impacts on U.S. Even in the more democratic states, the populations have only limited impact on policy decisions. The “masters of the universe” are of course very far from representative of the populations of the dominant powers. And with the inevitable decline, Washington’s power is to some extent shared within the “de facto world government” of the “masters of the universe,” to borrow the terms of the business press-referring to the leading state capitalist powers (the G7 countries) along with the institutions they control in the “new imperial age,” such as the International Monetary Fund and the global trade organizations. Its power, however, has been diminishing since it reached a historically unprecedented peak in 1945. It still largely sets the terms for global discourse, ranging from such concerns as Israel-Palestine, Iran, Latin America, the “war on terror,” international economic organization, rights and justice, and others like them to the ultimate issues of survival of civilization (nuclear war and environmental destruction).

But it is not hard to recognize the sharp differences in ability to shape world affairs, and to identify the more prominent and influential actors.Īmong states, since the end of World War II the United States has been by far the first among unequals, and remains so.

The world is too varied, too complex, for that to be possible. The question raised by the title of this book cannot have a simple and definite answer.

Who rules the world noam