World Views Part 1 The Filters By Which We View the World

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World Views Part 1The Filters By Which We View
the World
Linda Young POLS 400 International Political
Economy Wilson Hall Room 1122
Fall 2005
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Liberal, Realist, and Historical Structuralist
Perspectives

• Each have analytical and normative components
• Analytical component (how it helps us
  understand the world)
• Normative component (commitment to a value)

Economic Liberalism based on a commitment to a
market economy
Realism commitment to the nation state and the
use of the nation state as a unit of analysis
Gilpin is a state-centric realist, using its
analytical capability to understand the world,
but his normative commitment is liberal in
nature
Structuralist structure determines outcome
Includes Marxism, dependency theory and world
systems theory
Cannot be disproved or proved by empirical
research
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State-Centric Realism

• Recognizes the central role of the state,
  security and power in international affairs
• Anarchic nature of the international system
• Does not mean constant warfare means that
  there is no higher authority that the state
  can appeal to in times of trouble
• Primacy of the state in international affairs
• Principal actor
• No body sovereign over it
• Central concerns of the state are military
  security and political independence power and
  power relations are important but power can be
  military power, economic power, or political power

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Other Actors

• Firms and multilateral organizations

But, the economic and foreign policies of a
society reflect the nations interest as
determined by the dominant elite of that society
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How Did This Perspective Develop?

• Contributed to the development of the state by
  emphasizing central state authority vis-a-vis
  external forces
• Power and wealth legitimate goals of the state
• Power achieved through the accumulation of gold
  and silver
• Unification of territory through emphasis on the
  state
• Promotion of exports restriction of imports
• Trade as a zero-sum game
• Mercantilist Period Europe 15-18th centuries

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Economic Policies Following Mercantilism

• Ideas and Consequences about Gold
• But not all countries can run trade surpluses
• Trying to can lead to beggar thy neighbor
  policies (critique by Adam Smith)
• Example is the interwar period
• Declined in post-WWII (liberalism strong then)
• Much evidence in trade negotiations today free
  trade theoretically best unilaterally, but
  counties wont
• Zero-sum world with states concerned with
  absolute gains and losses

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Economic Nationalism as a Form of Mercantilism

• Focused on the development of the domestic
  economy key concern the relationship between
  economic power and political power
• State must assist in development
• Give subsidies to domestic industries to help
  them compete
• Examples? Newly industrializing countries (NIEs)?
• From Alexander Hamilton to Ross Perot andthe
  giant sucking sound

Alexander Hamilton
RossPerot
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Neo Mercantilism

• Government promotion of their industries
• The same idea just new clothing less visible
  forms of promoting domestic industry
• Lessen dependence on oil imports
• Realism had a resurgence in the late 1970s-80s
• Disarray due to ending of the cold warand also
  the uncertainty in the world economy

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Assumptions of Realism

• States are the major actors in international
  affairs
• States behave as unitary rational agents that act
  to protect their vital interests
• International anarchy is the principal force
  shaping the actions of states
• States in anarchy are preoccupied with power and
  security, are predisposed toward conflict, and
  often fail to cooperate even in the face of
  common interests
• International institutions affect the prospect
  for cooperation only marginally

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Gilpin

• Realism is an analytical perspective not a moral
  commitment to the nation state

• Realist some regret lack of restraint on the
  state and lack of moral commitment
• Difference between realism and nationalism
  Realists paint a picture of what they see without
  endorsing it

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Hegemonic Stability Theory

• Two hegemons in Western history Britain (19
  century) and United States (post WWII)
• Hegemon when there is an extremely unequal
  division of power
• International system most stable when a dominant
  power is willing to pursue policies to create and
  maintain a liberal economic order and when it is
  powerful enough (controls enough resources) to do
  so
• Without a hegemon, more difficult to maintain an
  open trading regime
• Other factors can accountfor an open trading
  regime

USA
Great Britain
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Consequences of Hegemony

• Necessary, sufficient, for an open and stable
  world order?
• Creates international regimes sets of implicit
  or explicit principles, norms, rules and decision
  making procedures for a particular area US
  endorsed an open trading system (but not an open
  financial system, not agriculture nor textiles)
• Debate over the importance of declining hegemons
  to the decline of regimes
• Perhaps a world with states of equal power could
  negotiate better regimes

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Liberalism (liberal/liberty- same Latin root)

• NOT a political perspective as commonly thought
  with an active role for the state in helping the
  poor
• Liberalism defined by belief in freedom under the
  law, individual rights and free markets
• Wallerstein liberalism began with the French
  Revolution with the idea of political change and
  need for the state to be legitimated by the
  people conservatives resisted that so for
  minimal state and individual liberty
• Long history of condemning the role of the
  government in the market

US Declaration of Independence

• Reaction to abuses by the state and the church
• US Declaration of Independence

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Liberal View of Society

• Society and economies constructed so that
  individual initiative is critical
• Positive-sum game the free market
• Free market as an essential part of the liberal
  society invisible hand
• Liberals believe in the importance of the freedom
  of the individual right to be treated as
  ethical subjects not means or objects

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Liberal View of the Market
Liberals see the outcome of the market as being
restrained by competition so that while an
individual acts with self-interest, the outcome
is positive But market power is restrained in
this case

• Mercantilists see competition as cut throat with
  losers you need power to get what you want

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Liberal View of Politics

• John Locke in England
• Thomas Jefferson in the US
• Citizens have certain positive rights (freedomof
  speech and freedom of the press)
• And negative rights (freedom from state
  authority-unlawful arrest)
• With a conflict, diffused power and the guarantee
  of certain rights will result in resolution of
  conflict peacefully

John Locke
Thomas Jefferson
Freedom of
Freedom of
the Press
of Speech
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Liberal View of Foreign Relations

• Cooperation and harmony
• Free trade free commerce makes a nations
  industry efficient and maximizes welfare
• Economic ties between countries diminish the need
  for security
• Britains corn laws relationship between
  economic policy and political representation

• John Stuart Mill (1806-1873)
• Liberalism as an important destructive force due
  to role in revolutions, etc. weakened central
  authority
• Wanted more than the accumulation of wealth
• Wanted social progress and intervention by the
  state provision of education, etc.

John Stuart Mill
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John Keynes and Keysianism

• More active role for the economy
• Beliefs shaped by the failure of market economies
  in the great depression
• Because of risk and uncertainty, individuals
  could act rationally and the result could be
  destructive

Consequences of thrift less goods consumed, and
thus fewer workers needed can create an
unwanted outcome State must act in these
circumstances should spend
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Keynes influenced the development of our
multilateral institutions embedded liberalism
State with an important role in the macro economy

• IMF to correct lack of demand state to step
  into correct failures of the market

Embedded liberalism has a broader meaning
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New Meaning of Liberalism

• In the 1960s and 1970s the state had a bigger
  role
• Liberal meant an emphasis on the market and it
  came to mean an emphasis on state action in many
  realms
• Space exploration, the Vietnam war, civil rights
  and regulation of business and the environment
• Reaction by Friedrich Hayek and Milton Friedman

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Critiques of Realism
Too much emphasis on politics early postwar
stress on security a drawback

• Tend to ignore North-South issues
• Emphasis on relative gains undermines
  international institutions