出版社：American Sociological Association Section on Political Economy of the World System
摘要：This article is t he fift h in a se rie s in which the political caree rs of civilizat ions/world sys-tems receive snapshot codings of their overall power structures at feasible intervals. The narrat ives are produce d by collating histories with large frames of re ference . The codings are done using a nominal variable, polarity, with seven available values. Pre vious article s in the series have examine d t he Indic system 550 bc–ad 1800, the Far Eastern 1025 bc–ad 1850, the Sout hwest Asian c. 2700–1500 bc, and the Nort heast African c. 2625–1500 bc. The Northeast African and Southwest Asian sys-tems and seque nces me rge c. 1500 bc to form the Central syst em. In the c urrent article, the powe r structure of the Ce ntral Civilizat ion/ World System is appraised ove r its first 800 years at 10–year intervals, from 1500 bc to an arbitrary stopping point of 700 bc. The systemic powe r struct ure is e valu-ated in te rms of its predominant forms and their stability. During t his 8-century period, the Central world system showed a distinct individuality, or "character": multipolar and unipolar structures predominated; there was limited varie ty in struc ture, with e xt reme forms exclude d; the re was substantial struc-tural stabilit y. O ver t ime , the Central system "age d": its already limite d structural variety furt her diminished, while it s struc tural sta-bilit y increased.The sequence of power configurations in the Cent ral system is co mpared to the expec-tations of several the orie s. Toynbee's revised civilizational model fares best , but leaves dynamical issues unaddresse d; the classical European balance of power model matches the kinematics (the sequence of forms), but not the dynamics, of behavior of t he Cen-tral system. Alte rnative future directions of inquiry are discusse d
