PSCI 3601 Lecture Notes - Lecture 2: Billiard Ball, Cobweb Model, Complex Interdependence
10 Jun 2018
School
Department
Course
Professor
Liberalism
Lecture 2
Introduction
• Origins in the European Enlightenment (Locke, Kant, Bentham, Smith)
• Philosophical commitment:
- Individualism
- Freedom and equality/ human rights
- Private property/ market
- Constitutionalism
- Limited government
• Different level: domestic, system, transnational various emphases: international law,
democracy, institutions.
States and none state actors
• States are important actors, but state behavior and interactions are affected by non
state actors
- In domestic politics
- In international relations
- International organizations
• Premise: society prior to state/ individual prior to group
• International politics= inter-societal as well as inter- state relations.
• Realism: Billiard ball model
• Liberalism: cobweb model
Challenges to the four assumptions of realism
• States not necessarily the most important actors.
• States not unitary actors (internal make-up of states make a difference.)
• States may not be rational actors (national interest result of a political process rather
than a choice)
• States not necessarily the boundary of community (cosmopolitan).
Human nature: self-interest and cooperation
• Human beings are rational i.e.
- Self- interested
- Capable of abiding by moral standards and law.
→ possibility of progress (perfectibility of humans and institutions through reason
→ possibility of cooperative relations among states.
qualifications of anarchy
international relations
• Lockean rather than Hobbesian state of nature (peace, goodwill, and cooperation)
• Also anarchy/ the state of nature mitigated by
1. Idealism (interwar period)
- International law and organization
- Collective security
- World opinion
find more resources at oneclass.com
find more resources at oneclass.com
Document Summary
Introduction: origins in the european enlightenment (locke, kant, bentham, smith, philosophical commitment: Limited government: different level: domestic, system, transnational various emphases: international law, democracy, institutions. States and none state actors: states are important actors, but state behavior and interactions are affected by non state actors. International politics= inter-societal as well as inter- state relations: premise: society prior to state/ individual prior to group, realism: billiard ball model, liberalism: cobweb model. Human nature: self-interest and cooperation: human beings are rational i. e. - self- interested. Capable of abiding by moral standards and law. Possibility of progress (perfectibility of humans and institutions through reason. Possibility of cooperative relations among states. qualifications of anarchy international relations: lockean rather than hobbesian state of nature (peace, goodwill, and cooperation, also anarchy/ the state of nature mitigated by, idealism (interwar period) Constitutional approach: functionalism (d. mitrany, e. haas) Spillover from low politics to high politics: complex interdependence. Multiple channels between societies (interstate, transnational, trans-government).
