Imperialism as we knew it may be no more, but Empire is alive and well. It is, as Michael Hardt and Antonio Negri demonstrate in this bold work, the new political order of globalization. It is easy to recognize the contemporary economic, cultural, and legal transformations taking place across the globe but difficult to understand them. Hardt and Negri contend that they should be seen in line with our historical understanding of Empire as a universal order that accepts no boundaries or limits. Their book shows how this emerging Empire is fundamentally different from the imperialism of European dominance and capitalist expansion in previous eras. Rather, today's Empire draws on elements of U.S. constitutionalism, with its tradition of hybrid identities and expanding frontiers. Empire identifies a radical shift in concepts that form the philosophical basis of modern politics, concepts such as sovereignty, nation, and people. Hardt and Negri link this philosophical transformation to cultural and economic changes in postmodern society--to new forms of racism, new conceptions of identity and difference, new networks of communication and control, and new paths of migration. They also show how the power of transnational corporations and the increasing predominance of postindustrial forms of labor and production help to define the new imperial global order. More than analysis, Empire is also an unabashedly utopian work of political philosophy, a new Communist Manifesto. Looking beyond the regimes of exploitation and control that characterize today's world order, it seeks an alternative political paradigm--the basis for a truly democratic global society.

我们所知道的帝国主义可能已经不复存在，但帝国却活得很好。正如迈克尔-哈特和安东尼奥-内格里在这部大胆的作品中所证明的那样，它是全球化的新政治秩序。认识到全球范围内发生的当代经济、文化和法律变革很容易，但要理解它们却很困难。哈特和奈格里认为，应该根据我们对帝国的历史理解来看待它们，因为帝国是一种不接受边界或限制的普遍秩序。他们的书表明，这个新兴的帝国与以前时代的欧洲统治和资本主义扩张的帝国主义有根本的不同。相反，今天的帝国借鉴了美国立宪主义的元素，其传统是混合身份和扩大边界。帝国确定了构成现代政治的哲学基础的概念的彻底转变，如主权、国家和人民等概念。哈特和奈格里将这种哲学转变与后现代社会的文化和经济变化联系起来--联系到新形式的种族主义、新的身份和差异概念、新的沟通和控制网络以及新的移民途径。他们还展示了跨国公司的力量和后工业形式的劳动和生产的日益主导地位如何帮助定义新的帝国全球秩序。比起分析，《帝国》也是一部毫不掩饰的政治哲学的乌托邦作品，一个新的《共产党宣言》。它超越了作为当今世界秩序特征的剥削和控制制度，寻求另一种政治范式--一个真正民主的全球社会的基础。