ANARCHY OR HIERARCHY? A DEBATE BETWEEN PARADIGMS ON WORLD ORDER IN WORLD-SYSTEM THEORIES

Abstract

This study analyzes the epistemological and ontological debate between anarchic and hierarchical perspectives regarding the structure of the international system. Drawing on Waltz’s KN "third image," (2022) the article contrasts the neorealist view (MORGENTHAU H, 2003; WALTZ KN, 2022; MEARSHEIMER JJ, 2001), centered on the premises of structural anarchy, self-help, and the balance of power as a self-regulating mechanism of order, with the critical Marxist and World-Systems Theory perspectives (COX RW, 1981; ARRIGHI G, 1994; FRANK AG, 1998). The latter maintains that the global system is intrinsically hierarchical, organized by asymmetries in production, the international division of labor, and accumulation dynamics that perpetuate inequality between the core and the periphery. Through a conceptual review of the balance of power and an analysis of processes such as systemic cycles of accumulation and systemic chaos, the article concludes that the two paradigms offer complementary explanatory strengths: while the neorealist approach formalizes the predictability of behaviors and power balances in great-power security scenarios, the Marxist framework provides the essential tools to historicize, critique, and denaturalize the material structures of domination that underpin the contemporary world order.