On Wallerstein's Thought Of Structural Crisis

Since the global financial crisis broke out in 2008,the status quo and future of capitalism has become one of the most concerned topics in the global public,media,business,politics,and academia.However,most of the previous discussions and research were limited to the short-term causes and consequences of the crisis,and were entangled with microscopic specific figures or events.On the contrary,as the chief founder of modern world system theory,Wallerstein started from the perspective of macro historical structure within the framework of world system theory,examined the macro structural factors and trends of the capitalist world system,and put forward a series of ideas about the current world system is in an irreversible structural crisis,forming a unique structural crisis ideology.Starting from the perspective of world system theory,this article explores Wallerstein's thoughts of structural crisis in depth,and focuses on the basic issues of the discussion of this thought to reveal its theoretical framework.In general,Wallerstein's thought of structural crisis is based on the disclosure of the inherent contradictions of the modern world system,revealing the historical trend that the modern world system must inevitably go from decline to end.This article consists of four chapters.The first chapter discusses the formation background of structural crisis thought.It includes three parts: the formation background,the origin of thought and the development process of structural crisis thought.The background of ideological formation includes three levels: politics,economics,and culture.The ideological origin is mainly the analysis of the influence of Marx's theory of capital accumulation,the theory of historical analysis of the yearbook school,and the theory of Prigogine's dissipative structure.Finally,combined with Wallerstein's own academic experience,discuss the development of structural crisis thought.The second chapter analyzes the basic issues of structural crisis thought.Including the three dilemmas that cannot be overcome in the capitalist world economy,namely,the dilemma of capital accumulation,the dilemma of political legitimacy,and the geo-cultural dilemma;the crisis situation that must not be faced after the equilibrium mechanism of the capitalist world economy fails,that is,The state,the decline of the hegemonic state,and the process of the imbalance of the inter-state system from the center to the periphery;the general trend of the modern world system after the structural crisis and its choice of the new historical system.The third chapter explores the basic categories and construction methods of structural crisis thought.First,regarding the basic category,the long-term development of periodicity and trend from the time point of view makes the occurrence of structural crisis inevitable;from the perspective of space,the structure of "center-half-edge-edge" forms the inter-country of the modern world system.System;and the international collision between politics,economy,and culture is a specific area where the modern world system enters a structural crisis.The second is about construction methods.This article separately discusses the construction methods of Wallerstein's structural crisis thought,namely the world system analysis method,the structuralist analysis method,and the Brodale-style long-term analysis method.The fourth chapter summarizes the evaluation and reflection of structural crisis thought.First,how to make an accurate evaluation.This article summarizes the theoretical contribution of the structural crisis thought from the front,and interprets it from the opposite side while standing on the Marxist standpoint.Secondly,it summarizes the ideological connotation of the structural crisis thoughts and the enlightenment of constructing the community of human destiny.In general,Wallerstein's structural crisis thoughts deeply analyze the internal contradictions of the capitalist world system.Today,China has become an important part of this system.When it faces a crisis,China can never be alone.Therefore,the study of structural crisis ideas is conducive to our deeper understanding of the endogenous contradictions of the capitalist world economy,and to sum up experiences and lessons,and provide some problems and difficulties encountered in the process of construction and development of socialism with Chinese characteristics.It also provides a certain reference for understanding the international community and building a community of human destiny.