Post on 21-Dec-2015
Pluralism
1. Waltz is wrong to focus on security and conflict.
2. Other types of interaction are vital to understand the international system (e.g., economic)
--Leads to mutual interdependence
(“Nice Guys” of IR:Keohane, Nye, Caporaso,Ruggie, Krasner)
Pluralism (continued)
3. Add economics to achieve an “analytical clean-up” of neo-realism.
4. Account for economic interests, not just security interests
Pluralism (continued)
1. If states are bad, let’s curb them.
Disown Hobbes and downplay the
state.
2. Create “regimes”
3. John Ruggie (1975)
4. Stephen Krasner (1982)
Pluralism (continued)
A regime is a “set of expectations, rules and regulations, plans, organizational energies and financial commitments, which have been accepted by a group of states” (Ruggie, 1975)
Pluralism (continued)
Regimes as “Social Institutions”
They consist of implicit or explicit:
1. Principles2. Norms3. Rules and decision-making procedures Examples--GATT and OPEC
NB: Regimes are made up of states
Pluralism (continued)
Regimes as Intermediate Factors
They help to account for cooperation and discord.Behavior is limited by the norms and rules of the
regime.Regime theory de-emphasizes the state.
Pluralism (continued)
The Wall Begins to Crumble
Attacks on the State as the Unit of Analysis:
“Turbulence” Rosenau (1990)“Region States” Ohmae (1995)Non-Traditional Threats: terrorism, drugs,
crimeInformation RevolutionTechnology and Finance
Globalism (Continued)
Rejection of liberalism and neo- classical economic theory
View of the International System:
Integrated capitalist world economyCeaseless quest for accumulation
Globalism (Continued)Countries Belong to One of Three Categories:
1. Core (capital intensive)2. Periphery (labor intensive3. Semi-periphery (mixture)
Globalism (continued)External Behavior
Core States maintain the world economy by military or other means
Change in the World Economy1. Economic contraction and expansion2. Upward and downward mobility of states
Globalism (summary)1. The behavior of states is governed by the anarchic structure of the world economy.
2. Conflict is natural in the world economy.
3. Geographically-based actors are central.
4. State behavior, however, is not rational.
5. Nation-states consist of capital, labor, and the means of coercion.
Dependency Theory (Continued)
“Penetration”by a dominant society and its forces
Transnational corporationsMilitary forcesPolitical advisors and missionaries
Dependency Theory (Continued)
Penetrate weak, dependent societiesDrain local resourcesTransfer economic surplus to dominant
societyDistorts the economic and social structure