Foundation and Empire: A critique of Hardt and Negri

Hardt and Negri's Empire has become hugely influential, not only in theorising contemporary societies, but as a guide to the politics of the Left and the anti-globalisation movement. The book's sweep and ambition is indeed huge, but is not matched by the clarity of its concepts or the credibility of the evidence presented. Neither the book's analysis of regimes of global governance and the hidden abode of production, nor its articulation of a potential agency of resistance—the multitude—are convincing. In this article, Thompson complements other critiques through the use of the tools of labour process theory to critique the political economy of Empire, and to note its unfortunate similarities to conventional theories of the knowledge economy.