Perhaps, but given the fact that what has happened to Bosnia, Kosovo, East Timor, etc. is the _cutting edge_ of the Empire (& recognized as such by the ruling class & the governing elite), Hardt & Negri would have to present a sharp analysis of it, given _the audacious book title_ they chose.
Politically, economically, & even culturally, the post-Socialist/post-Social Democratic era (ours, roughly from the late 70s to the present) seems to me to be an era of Regress instead of Progress, seen from the point of view of the working class. We've lost much of earlier gains, without gaining any significant new reforms, with an exception of the advance of gay & lesbian civil rights in some rich nations & entry of more women into wage labor in some corners of the earth (though women lost jobs & benefits in post-Socialist nations). The balance of forces doesn't look good, even a devotee to the Gramscian "optimism of the will" like yours truly.
While I have no sympathy for mania for simple, healthy living & nostalgia for the bad old days in rural pastorales, it is a giant stretch to declare the present state of affairs to be Progress. Nowadays, breaking down the "parochial and rigid hierarchies" mainly translates into removing price controls, deregulating utilities, attacking the "rigidity" in the labor market, etc. Perhaps Hardt & Negri belong to the "worse, the better" school of leftism, seeing a ray of socialist hope in such deregulated messes like the California electricity debacle?
Yoshie