POLS2133 Study Guide - Final Guide: Functional Response, Neoliberalism, Great Power
POLS2133 EXAM NOTES
(WK 12) WRAPPING UP & EXAM PREPARATION
Wrapping Up
A theory of IO creation
Why do states create an IO and delegate a new task to it in a given issue area?
Neoliberal institutionalism provides an effective theory of IO creation: an IO can help states to overcome
a cooperation problem and thereby achieve joint gains
-Without IOs, the incentives facing states make it impossible, difficult or simply inefficient for states to
create solutions to capture those gains unilaterally, bilaterally or on an ad hoc basis
-In particular, IOs provide an efficient functional response to the Prisoner’s Dilemma in a given issue
area
Concrete application
Be ready to describe what the world looks like in the absence of the IO, in the given issue area
This may require you to talk in abstract terms, OR, there may be a historical reference point
Give concrete meaning to concepts such as cooperation problem and joint gains (and remember joint
gains may simply be the reduction of costs)
A theory of IO operation
How does the IO work? Through what mechanisms can the IO change (potentially) state behaviour?
Our course has emphasised a conditional – not absolutist – argument: many international problems are
more likely to be solved with, than without, IOs
We have several theories which purport to explain how IOs operate
Neoliberal Institutionalism – Keohane (1982)
A rational functionalist explanation
-(Boundedly) Rational: states act according to some cost/benefit and risk/reward calculus, but lack
perfect information
-Functional: IOs can change state behaviour if they can offer states gain from cooperating
How? As many as four ways, most of which relate to the varying degrees of information within the
anarchic international system: (i) standards/focal points; (ii) lowering transaction costs; (iii) reducing
uncertainty (via lengthening shadow of future); (iv) issue linkage
Concrete application
Learn those four mechanisms and understand what they’re doing in the theoretical story.
Learn how they operate in the different issue areas! For example, what does it mean to say that the TO can
lower transaction costs in trade? What does it mean to say that the UNSC can increase the shadow of the
future?
Don’t just learn the ‘buzzwords’ (though the buzzwords are important), but be able to explain how they
operate in different issue areas.
Realism - Gruber (2000)
Creation: Great powers’ relative-gains concerns and asymmetrical power are the inherent enabling
conditions for creating and designing IOs.
-Fundamental issue to decide is not whether to create an IO, but on whose terms to do so in the first
place.
find more resources at oneclass.com
find more resources at oneclass.com
Document Summary
Exam notes (wk 12) wrapping up & exam preparation. Neoliberal institutionalism provides an effective theory of io creation: an io can help states to overcome a cooperation problem and thereby achieve joint gains. Without ios, the incentives facing states make it impossible, difficult or simply inefficient for states to create solutions to capture those gains unilaterally, bilaterally or on an ad hoc basis. In particular, ios provide an efficient functional response to the prisoner"s dilemma in a given issue area. Be ready to describe what the world looks like in the absence of the io, in the given issue area. This may require you to talk in abstract terms, or, there may be a historical reference point. Give concrete meaning to concepts such as cooperation problem and joint gains (and remember joint gains may simply be the reduction of costs)
