Power and the Varieties of Order - Liberal Leviathan: The Origins, Crisis, and Transformation of the American World Order - page 45

tion and compliance by weaker and secondary states. Great Britain in the nineteenth century,
in its non-empire-related capacity as a champion of free trade and open navigation, and the
United States after World War II are the great historical cases of liberal hegemony.
By virtue of its dominant position, the liberal hegemonic state can act in its long-term in-
terests rather than compete over short-term gains with other states. It can identify its own
national interest with the openness and stability of the larger system. The United States thus
shapes and dominates the international order while guaranteeing a flow of benefits to other
governments that earns their acquiescence. In contrast to empire, this negotiated order de-
pends on agreements regarding the rules of the system between the leading state and every-
one else. 53 In this way, the norms and institutions that have developed around American he-
gemony both limit the actual coercive exercise of American power and draw other states into
the management of the system.
Table 2-4
Empire and Liberal Hegemony
In a liberal hegemonic order, the leading state is not simply building hierarchical relations
around a series of bilateral, hub-and-spoke relations. It is creating a larger order—a political
and economic space within the international system—in which participating states operate. 54
In doing so, it provides a basis for weaker and secondary states to make decisions to willingly
join and comply with the rules and institutions of the order. These diffuse features of order
alter the incentives and opportunities that states across the system face—and so they alter the
nature of power and authority associated with hierarchical order. (See table 2-4 .)
In particular, three institutional features of liberal hegemony distinguish it from empire.
First, the leading state sponsors and operates within a system of negotiated rules and insti-
tutions. Power disparities still give advantages to the hegemonic state, but the arbitrary and
indiscriminate exercise of power is reined in. Rules and institutions can take several forms.
In an imperial order, the core state enforces the rules of hierarchy while remaining unbound
by those rules. In a hegemonic order, the leading state both sponsors rules and institutions
of order and acts in accordance with them. These rules and institutions may be more or less
formal, states may be more or less bound to abide by them, and the leading state may or may
not have special exemptions, privileges, and differential rights within the rule-based system.
What is distinctive about liberal hegemonic order is that—despite these variations—the rules
and institutions are generally agreed upon by both leading and secondary states. Organized
in this way, a rule-based hegemonic order provides advantages for all parties—it is, in ef-