liberalism

• Realists


  Primarily interested in power and balance of power
• Liberals


  Interested in explaining the conditions under which international cooperation, collaboration, or multilateralism becomes possible
• Liberalists


  • Take into consideration "second" and "first image" factors being critical to explaining international outcomes
  • Take into account international and nongovernmental organizations and often cross-cutting networks that connect them
• Liberalism has 5 key assumptions


  • 1st assumption: states AND nonstate transnational actors are important in world politics
  • 2nd assumption: many liberals see economic or other forms of interdependence or interconnectedness among state and nonstate actors a pacifying effect or moderation one on state behavior
  • 3rd assumption: have an extensive agenda of IR
  • 4th assumption "inside-out" view : examines factors of state-society and individual levels of analysis affect international relations and outcomes
  • 5th assumption: the main point is to discover under what conditions international collaboration, if not peace, might be achieved
• Neoliberal institutionalists


  Utilize the rational-actor assumption to help generate testable hypotheses on how international organizations can affect states' calculations of interests
• Regime theory


  Argues that collaboration is possible where principles, norms and actor's expectations converge on a particular issue area
• Liberalism


  • Sees game theory with a positive perspective - absolute gains (all win)
  • Examines the upgrading common interest to include the impact of nonmaterial factors such as ideas and norms
  • Human agents matter -conduct is influenced by ideas or constrains
• Contributors of liberalism


  • Montesquieu
  • Jean-Jacques Rousseau
  • Immanuel Kant
  • Adam smith
  • Richard Cobden
• Agency


  • A focus on actors
  • Human agents at the individual and small-group levels of analysis matter in liberal understanding
• Interest group liberalism


  International political processes are not all that different from and may even be considered an extension of, those conducted within the boundaries of a given state
• 3 liberal notions


  • the state as neutral arbiter
  • the potential for a natural harmony of interest in this case among groups of individuals
  • public concern for and participation in, policy processes not restricted to elites
• Natural Harmony of group competition


  • Interest group liberalism defines competing leaders and public interest
  • Political interest groups to liberals are those in which multiple actors compete
• Liberal philosophers and interest groups liberals both agree on the nature of the state and society and the potential for harmony to develop within representative democracies out of competition and conflict
• Primary purpose of state

  To regulate conflict, demands and for expression of interests
• Functionalism


  • Conflicts must be resolved by experts instead of politicians
  • Collaboration of certain issues may lead to further collaboration promoting unity and avoidance of conflict as they would have greater loss
• Neofunctionalism


  • Emphasizes integral politics
  • Argued that for integration to occur it must be of benefit for the leader and state to further pursue said integration
  • Takes into consideration best interest of actors when doing actions
• James Rosenau's work


  • Focused on the roles played by both state and non state actors
  • Created a differentiation between micro(individual) and macro (system structure) issues and relational one that tries to put the micro and macro together
• International regimes


  Rules agreed to by states in specific issues areas and often associated with international and nongovernmental organizations linked to these regimes
• Power-based realist theories


  • Emphasize the role of anarchy and impact of distribution of capabilities
  • Hegemonic stability: argues that regimes are established and maintained when a state holds a preponderance of power resources
  • If power is spread equally among states and regimes do not adapt themselves it leads to their decline
• Knowledge-based cognitive regime theories


  • Argue that state interests are not given, but rather created
  • They examine the role of normative and causative beliefs of decision makers in explaining preferences and interest information
  • Epistemic Communities: networks of professionals with recognized expertise and competence in a particular domain and an authoritative claim to policy-relevant knowledge within that domain
• International institutions has 3 form


  • Formal Intergovernmental or Cross-National, Nongovernmental Organizations
  • International Regimes
  • Conventions
• States use international institutions


  To enhance cooperations for self interested reasons
• Guarantors of commitments made by the state


  • Reputation
  • Reciprocity (including threats of retaliation)
• Keohane


  • Claims that institutions and regimes matter because they enable states to do things they otherwise could not do
  • States will most likely rely on regimes for self interest
• Realists vs Neoliberals on regimes

  Realists see regimes as constraints on state behavior while neoliberals view regimes positively as actually enabling states to achieve mutually beneficial outcomes
• Greater institutionalization as the world becomes more likely with a polity with governance essential to trade, finance, environment, security and other matters of global import
• Absolute gains for all

  Are possible as policy makers learn the benefits of cooperation in areas of interest to them
• Global governance


  Involves the processes and institutions both formal and informal that guide and restrain the collective activities of groups
• Brooks examines three major means by which the international economy can influence security


  • Changing capabilities
  • Incentives
  • Nature of the actors
• For liberals the likelihood of war is decreased by


  Expansion of free trade and democracy
• Kant's republicanism


  Representative democracy supported by the rule of law and respect for basic freedoms of rights in civil society
• Centrality of state-society relations


  • State is composed of diverse societal actors
  • Ideas, groups interests, institutions and individuals shape state preferences
  • Agency is important- state as actors has meaning only when we look within the state to the decision makers themselves and examine how they are influenced by domestic factors and how they relate to their decision-making counterparts in other states
• liberalism is founded on the belief that the well being of an individual should be the basis of a just society
• Realist perspective


  • Anarchy causes for the development to further government
  • Anarchy determines the behavior of states
• Realist perspective


  Examines relations amongst states different than actors (overall def for intl relations)
• Anarchy


  No central authority
• States


  • Always prioritize security
  • Always seek to have greater power than the rest of the states
• Increasing of power


  May lead to distrust from other states
• Liberalism


  • A positive view of human nature
  • Individuals are self-interested, but they also share many interests
  • War is not inevitable
  • People can achieve mutually beneficial cooperation not only within states but also across international boundaries
  • Cooperation based on mutual interest can prevail in the long run
  • Belief in progress
• Cold war demonstrated a bipolar power