 Beyond this common core, the criticisms offered vary. For instance, Samir Amin's  study  Eurocentrism  is concerned to criticize a particular conception  of progress. This conception, which he terms Eurocentrism, characterizes all major  historical innovations as European.  It also views capitalist democracy as the ideal social system and colonialism as instrumental in spreading it throughout the world  (Amin 1988, 108). Finally, Eurocentricism holds that current global economic  inequality is caused by internal features of individual countries (77) and is in  principle eliminable (111). Now, Amin does not reject the project of identifying  macro-historical movements. His reasoning is, in fact, influenced by Marxism.  He seeks only to replace Eurocentrism with a truer account. To do so, he first  presents an alternate sketch of historical development that shines light on  non-European contributions.  He next argues that current global inequality is produced by international capitalism and cannot be eradicated without dismantling that system (112–14).  He ends by stating that some form of socialism is the only  stable and humane political system, although it is far from inevitable (152).  