POL327Y5 Lecture Notes - Lecture 1: Rational Choice Theory, Decision-Making
Document Summary
The tests are in two parts, identification and essay. Explain what it is and why it is significant. Studying foreign policies forces us to bridge over various other fields in political science, it is not intended to deal with domestic problems, but with problems outside of the state. The liberal pluralist tradition sees policy as the outcome of competition of various different groups, but foreign policy is different from that. The school of thought that tends to dominate international relations is by realists. Nation states are seen by realist as rational actors. Rational actors are those when confronted by a problem, they look to address that problem with a cost-benefit analysis which is often seen to be the best optimal outcome. They look for the best possible outcome for their state. This is open, it is hierarchical, and they are unaffected by domestic politics. States are concerned with their security, and they secure security by gaining power.
