POLI 243 Lecture Notes - Lecture 3: Underconsumption, Capital Market, Scammell

• School: McGill University
• Department: Political Science
• Course: POLI 243
• Professor: Mark Brawley

Document Summary

Idealists/utopians: human behaviour can be perfected, harmony of interests exist between people and the state, war is never an appropriate way to resolve conflict, with correct laws and institutions guiding behaviour, the harmony of interests will be revealed. Realists: humans have a will to survive, the will to survive equals a will to dominate, this creates a competition to dominate, which triggers a search for power. Structural realism: states are the primary actors, states are unitary and rational actors. 3: states seek to maximize their power. Structural realism is still the best theory in ir because worry about the future security/power of your state will always endure. 4 arguments for structural realism > anything else: democratic peace theory. Democracies often start wars to stop the spread of any other political regime (communism, autocracy: interdependence. One country is usually more dependent on the other one: international institutions. Monopolized by one powerful state usually (nato: balancing power.