the social relations evolved in the core countries as the desirable model for emulation. Elite talent from peripheral countries is co-opted into international institutions in the manner of trasformismo.Individuals from peripheral countries,though they may come to international institutions with the idea of working from within to change the system,are condemned to work within the structures of passive revolution.At best they will help transfer elements of 'modernisation'to the peripheries but only as these are consistent with the interests of established local powers.Hegemony is like a pillow:it absorbs blows and sooner or later the would-be assailant will find it comfortable to rest upon.Only where represen- tation in international institutions is firmly based upon an articulate social and political challenge to hegemony-upon a nascent historic bloc and counter- hegemony-could participation pose a real threat.The co-optation of outstand- ing individuals from the peripheries renders this less likely. Trasformismo also absorbs potentially counter-hegemonic ideas and makes these ideas consistent with hegemonic doctrine.The notion of self-reliance,for example,began as a challenge to the world economy by advocating endogenously-determined autonomous development.The term has now been transformed to mean support by the agencies of the world economy for do-it- yourself welfare programmes in the peripheral countries.These programmes aim to enable the rural populations to achieve self-sufficiency,to stem the rural exodus to the cities,and to achieve thereby a greater degree of social and political stability amongst populations which the world economy is incapable of inte- grating.Self-reliance in its transformed meaning becomes complementary to and supportive of hegemonic goals for the world economy. Thus,one tactic for bringing about change in the structure of world order can be ruled out as a total illusion.There is very little likelihood of a war of move- ment at the international level through which radicals would seize control of the superstructure of international institutions.Daniel Patrick Moynihan notwith- standing,Third World radicals do not control international institutions.Even if they did,they could achieve nothing by it.These superstructures are inadequately connected with any popular political base.They are connected with the national hegemonic classes in the core countries and,through the intermediacy of these classes,have a broader base in these countries.In the peripheries,they connect only with the passive revolution. The Prospects for Counter-Hegemony World orders-to return to Gramsci's statement cited earlier in this essay-are grounded in social relations.A significant structural change in world order is, accordingly,likely to be traceable to some fundamental change in social relations and in the national political orders which correspond to national structures of social relations.In Gramsci's thinking,this would come about with the emerg- ence of a new historic bloc. We must shift the problem of changing world order back from international institutions to national societies.Gramsci's analysis of Italy is even more valid when applied to the world order:only a war of position can,in the long run, bring about structural changes,and a war of position involves building up the 173 Downloaded from mil.sagepub.com at LIB SHANGHAI JIAOTONG UNIV on Oclober 10.2010Downloaded from mil.sagepub.com at LIB SHANGHAI JIAOTONG UNIV on October 10, 2010