POLS1005 Chapter Notes - Chapter 1: World Politics, Consistency, Mercantilism
[Week 1]
World Politics – Frieden Lake Schultz
Introduction
What is world politics and why do we study it?
• The field of world politics (international relations) seeks to understand how the peoples and
the countries of the world get along
• The number of international treaties and organizations organized for the protection of our
environment have increased over the years due to the growing awareness of this threat
Twelve puzzles in search of explanations
• Puzzles are observations about the world that demand an explanation
• Theory – a logically consistent set of statements that explain a phenomenon of interest
• Theories:
- Help us describe events by identifying which factors are important and which are not
- Help us predict by offering a sense of how the world works, and how a change in one
factor will lead to changes in behavior and outcomes
- Help prescribe policy responses by identifying what has to be changed to foster better
outcomes
• Probabilistic claims – an argument about the factors that increase or decrease the likelihood
that some outcome will occur
The framework: interests, interactions, and institutions
• Interests – what actors want to achieve through political action; their preference over the
outcomes that might result from their political choices
• Interactions – the ways in which the choices of two or more actors combine to produce
political outcomes
• Institution – a set of rules known and shared by the community that structure interactions in
specific ways
• A theory emerges when we identify the specific interests, interactions, and institutions that
work together to account for the events, or pattern of events, we hope to explain
• Bargaining – an interaction in which actors must choose outcomes that make one better off at
the expense of another. Bargaining is redistributive; it involves allocating a fixed sum of
value between actors
• Cooperation – an interaction in which two or more actors adopt policies that make at least
one actor better off relative to the status quo, without making the others worse off
Levels of analysis
• The variety of actors and institutions that play a role in world politics means that we will see
important interactions at three levels:
1. International level – representatives of different states interact with each other
2. Domestic level – subnational actors with different interests (e.g. politicians, labor
groups) interact within domestic institutions to determine the country’s foreign policy
choices
3. Transnational level – groups whose members span borders (e.g. terrorist
organizations, multinational corporations) pursue their interests by trying to influence
both domestic and international politics
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Integrating insights from realism, liberalism and constructivism
INTERESTS
INTERACTIONS
INSTITUTIONS
REALISM
- The state is the dominant
actor
- States seek security and/or
power
- States’ interests are
generally in conflict
International politics is
primarily about bargaining, in
which coercion always remains
a possibility
- The international system is
anarchic, and institutions exert little
independent effect
- International institutions reflect the
interests of powerful states
LIBERALISM
- Many times of actors are
important, and no single
interest dominates
- Wealth is a common goal
for many actors
- Actors often have common
interests, which can service
as the basis for cooperation
- International politics has an
extensive scope for
cooperation
- Conflict is not inevitable
but occurs when actors fail
to recognize or act on
common interests
- International institutions facilitate
cooperation by setting rules,
providing information, and creating
procedures for collective decision
making
- Democratic political institutions
increase the scope for international
politics to reflect the common
interests of individuals
CONSTRUCTIVISM
- Many types of actors are
important
- Actors’ interests are
influenced by culture,
identity, and prevailing
ideas
- Actors’ choices often reflect
norms of appropriate
behavior, rather than
interests
Interactions socialize actors to
hold particular interests, but
transformations can occur,
caused by alternative
understandings of those
interests.
International institutions define
identities and shape action through
norms of just and appropriate behavior.
REALISM:
• Starts with two assumptions:
1. States are the dominant actors on the international state
2. Institutional setting of world politics is characterized by an anarchy
• Anarchy – the absence of a central authority with the ability to make and enforce laws that
bind all actors
• “Realism sees a bleak world of states jockeying for power under the shadow of war”
LIBERALISM:
• Liberal theorists accept many types of actors as important in world politics – e.g. individuals
firms, NGO’s and states
• Unlike realism liberalism doesn’t require that any one interest dominate all others
• Liberals are generally optimistic about the possibilities for cooperation in world politics
• At a domestic level, liberals believe that democracy is the best way to ensure that
governments’ foreign policies reflect the underlying harmony of interests among individuals
CONSTRUCTIVISM:
• Like liberals, constructivists focus on a wide variety of actors and interests in world politics
and believe that international institutions can be effective
• Unlike liberals, they de-emphasize the material sources of interests (e.g. wealth) and focus
instead on the role of nonmaterial factors (e.g. ideas, culture)
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find more resources at oneclass.com
Document Summary
Twelve puzzles in search of explanations: puzzles are observations about the world that demand an explanation, theory a logically consistent set of statements that explain a phenomenon of interest, theories: Help us describe events by identifying which factors are important and which are not. Help us predict by offering a sense of how the world works, and how a change in one factor will lead to changes in behavior and outcomes. Help prescribe policy responses by identifying what has to be changed to foster better outcomes: probabilistic claims an argument about the factors that increase or decrease the likelihood that some outcome will occur. Interests what actors want to achieve through political action; their preference over the outcomes that might result from their political choices. Interactions the ways in which the choices of two or more actors combine to produce political outcomes. The international system is anarchic, and institutions exert little independent effect.
