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Conclusion 199

not tum toward a vague conception of transnational capital as the
new 'center' of cultural imperialism. Rather than a choice between the
nation state or TNCs as the imperialist, a more nuanced and
accurate approach would situate the American state as the complex
mediator of a cultural imperialism characterized by the explicit and/or
implicit promotion of consumerism and liberal ideals.

8.2 THE INTERNATIONALIZING STATE AND US
HEGEMONY

Aspects of the work of Robert Cox and Gramscian international
political economists can be used to develop the paradigm of cultural
imperialism. The concept of hegemony, for instance, represents a
process that involves the capacity to engage in and dominate institu-
tional developments and, when necessary, control the form of
mediated compromises. Cox elaborates that hegemony constitutes

a structure of values and understandings about the nature of
order that permeates a whole system of states and non-state
entities. In a hegemonic order these values and understandings are
relatively stable and unquestioned. They appear to most actors as
the natural order. Such a structure of meanings is underpinned by
a structure of power, in which most probably one state is
dominant but that state's dominance is not sufficient to create
hegemony. Hegemony derives from the dominant social strata of
the dominant states in so far as these ways of doing and thinking
have acquired the acquiescence of the dominant social strata of
other states. 5

It is through predominant and far-reaching social-economic nodal
points - such as organizations, international institutions and complex
political-economic regimes - that hegemony is structurally expressed
and potentially challenged. As elaborated above, the United States
continues to act as the core mediator among capitalists and other
domestic and international agents. As such, Schiller's recent emphasis
on organizing the American working class - although obtuse given his
argument that transnational forces now have taken charge of the
cultural imperialism project - is a remarkably relevant suggestion.
Given the centrality of the United States in this period of 'globaliza-
tion,' the American state will continue to be a central site in which to