The concern here is not with the validity of the hegemonic stability theory throughout the last 150 years, but with its ability to account for changes in international economic regimes during the decade between 1967 and 1977. Since the United States remained active during those years as the leading capitalist country, the problem of "leadership lag" does no which raises difficulties for the interpretation of the interwar period. Thus the theory should apply to the 1967-1977 period. Insofar as "potential eco c power" (Krasner's term) became more equally distributed-reducing he share of the United States-during the 1960s and early to mid-1970s U.S. created and U.S. centered international economic regimes should also have suffered erosion or decline