Imperium, imperialism, empire: a new and old debate

No abstractThis article refers to three related subjects which however have some differences. Concerning the subject of ‘imperium’, the intention is to demonstrate its most important characteristics before a specific aspect being brought up: the comparison of the power- political position of the U.S.A. in the present with the position of the Roman Empire in antiquity, a comparison which has been made so often recently that it can be considered worn out. With regard to the subject of ‘imperialism’, we go first into the ‘classical’, mostly Marxist works of the early twentieth century and thereupon we discuss to what extent they are adequate to apply to today’s situation and how the most recent theoretical approaches to imperialism try to explain the respective economical and political phenomena. Finally, the issue of ‘empire’ refers to the study of Michael Hardt and Antonio Negri which is a far-reaching attempt to consider the new order of the world and to develop an adequate conception of it