| According to common wisdom, America, as a nation, is quintessentially democratic and free. From other perspectives the United States, with its global military and acquisitive economy, is hegemonic and imperial. Depending on standpoint, both "democracy" and "empire" seem to capture defining features of the United States. The question then is how best to comprehend our American democratic empire, or what Thomas Jefferson called an "empire for liberty?";To answer the question above, this project begins by defining modern Empire as an unparalleled and global convergence of economic and governmental power permeated by money and its interlinked commodities and subjectivities. War and commerce are the motive forces of Empire, combining imperialism and freedom in constitutionalized and administrative modes. The sciences subtending these modes prove to originate at the dawn of modernity, circa 1500. And already by the 1600s, early modern state systems employ these sciences in ever rationalized, fiscal military modes of political economy that come to characterize English political thought and practice. In a direct repetition of the English fiscal militarist model, Alexander Hamilton continues this thought and practice, attempting to build an American empire based on a genealogy beginning with early modern state systems and continuing into the future. This historical understanding of the terms and development of modern political economy provides a new framework with which to understand American political thought and practice, specifically its genealogy of Empire. |
