Readings
1. Introduction to Politics (IP), ‘Introduction’
2. Plato. ‘The Analogy of the Cave,’
3. IP, chapter 3
4. Pages 78-85 and 90-91 from chapter 4
5. IP, chapter 1
6. Pages 41-44 from chapter 2
7. IP, chapter 7
8. IP, Key Quote Box 8.1, pp. 162-163.
9. IP, chapter 5
10. IP, chapter 12
11. IP, chapter 6
12. IP, chapter 14
13. IP, chapter 19
What is politics
- Social activity taking place within a group or between groups
- Politics always involves and refers to relations of power
- Implies discussion and debate
- About what the group should be doing (its end)
- How it should achieve its end (the means)
- Who is a member of the group and under what conditions
Two applications of politics’ definition
- Narrowly: limited to state/public institutions
- Supreme court of Canada – judicial institution
- Parliament – legal institution
- Focuses on the state and governmental bodies
- Boardly: not limited to state institutions, also other types of groups
- Unions
- Religions, etc
- Broadest possible: families. But we don’t talk about it
A recurring theme:
- There are competing interests and values inside any given group
- “Politics is about who gets what/when/how”
- Few assumptions
- Scarcity of resources
- Conflicts/negotiation/compromise
-
They are main characters of politics
Negative vs. Positive view of power
Negative
Positive
-
Politics essentially about conflict
-
Democracy & cooperation
-
Power is unevenly distributed,
inequality & oppression
-
Power as a productive thing brings
change & effect, allows changing
the world and people’s lives for the
better
-
Power corrupts people
-
A mean to achieve goals
-
“Politics is the art of governing
mankind by deceiving them” (Isaac
D’Israeli, 1962)
Politics as a study of values
1. What is a good life?
2. What is the best kind of society for us to live in?
3. A central divide between:
a. Those who prefer liberty over equality
b. Those who prefer equality over liberty
Is politic unavoidable
- It is unavoidable because systems need to be developed so that society can
function in the absence of consensus
- This claim underestimates the possibilities of achieving greater social cohesion
based on agreement around core values
- Marxists argue that differences of interests in society center on conflicts
between competing social classes, hence that the elimination of class
distinctions would offer prospect of a society based on consensus and
cooperation
- One in which there would be no need for either politics or the state
- Karl Marx & Friedrich Engels in Communist Manifesto：
- “Politics is merely the organized power of one class for oppressing
another”
Different Political Models
1. Liberal Democratic
a. Ex. Canada / USA
b. Regular elections, voter choose between candidates/parties
c. Several branch of government and more than one level of elected
government: decentralization of power
d. Standardized Laws, protecting rights such as
i. Property ownership
ii. Assembly
iii. Freedom of Speech
2. Alternatives systems similar but different
a. Ex. China / Malaysia / Singapore
b. Economic development over democracy
c. Sometimes at the expense of civil liberties and democratic procedures
3. Extreme religious states
a. Ex. Quasi-state of Daesh, Islamic State of Iraq
b. Threatening type of governance structure for the West
c. Mass human right abuses especially against women
4. Military regimes of African countries
5. Religious Monarchy
a. Ex. Saudi Arabia
b. Religious norms before civil rights and democracy
6. Indigenous models
a. Respect for interdependence with the natural world
b. Consensus decision-making
Political Questions
Politics is based on the assumptions that
1. There is not enough of everything (scarcity of resources)
2. People have different interests and values
Therefore, questions to ask:
First Set
1. What values do such decisions serve? Justice or liberty?
2. If so, what do we mean by such value?
3. Is the decision for the interest of the few/many/all?
4. Does the “All” include the natural world around us?
a. aka . What duties do we have to the natural world?
Second Set
1. Who makes the decisions? Who should make them?
2. Does one person/a few/many/all do the decision-making?
3. Anything special about democratic forms of government?
4. Are we under a greater obligation to obey decisions made in a democratic
way than in other ways?
Third Set
1. How are those who make decisions able to enforce them?
a. In other words: distinguish power & authority
b. Power implies coercion, able to force those without power
c. Authority implies consent, no need for force, people recognize the
ruler and consent to be ruled.
i.
Authority is defined in terms of legitimacy
Aristotle’s Classificatory Schema
Number Ruling
Rulers rule in the interest of:
All
Themselves
One
Monarchy
Tyranny
Few
Aristocracy
Oligarchy
Many
Polity
Democracy
Civil Society
Definition:
Refers to many private groups and institutions that operate between the
individual and the state, from business organizations and trade unions to religious
institutions, voluntary organizations, NGOs, and interest groups of all kinds.
Three streams of teaching of politics and Three Staples
1. The study of political ideas: Political Theory or Philosophy
a. Political thoughts / ideas
b. Shares with Philosophy, they overlap
2. Study of political institutions and process within states: Comparative Politics
a. Methodology based on comparing political entities
b. Draw certain conclusion to answer research questions (findings)
3. Study of relations between states: Global Politics or International Relations
a. Board perspectives
b. Relations between states
Three approaches
1. The Normative Approach: an authoritative standard
a. Focuses on questions of norms and values
b. To identify the effects of certain norms or values on politics
c. To identify what is good and best in politics
i. Not one claimed to be objective, but ethical
ii. Ex. reconciliation / decolonization
d. Rejects the idea that we can be perfectly neutral about politics
e. Facts don’t speak for themselves, they need to be interpreted
f. Can be influenced by researchers’ values
2. The Semantic Approach
a. Focuses on analyzing the meaning of the concepts used when talking
about politics
b. More specifically, focuses on the language and representations that are
used to describe political events or situations
c. The main approach in discourse analysis
3. The Empirical Approach
a. Focuses on identifying observable phenomena
b. Close to natural science, focuses on analyzing data that are measurable
c. Casuality: what causes result
d. Positivist aim: “Holds that science must limit itself to what is observable
and insists on a clean separation between fact and value”
e. Behaviouralism: embracing the Empirical Approach
i. Goal: measuring and predicting human behavior
ii. Method: apply the scientific method to the study of social
phenomena like politics
iii. Aspires to perfect objectivity
The Greek City-State
Politics: comes from greek word polis
- Polis: city or city-state
- Important landmark in the history of Western political thought
- Because people started reflecting on the activities of politics
- For the Greeks, a well-ordered city-state was necessary to achieve the Common
Good
- Common Good is to politics what the Truth is to philosophy
- Aka. the highest goal
- Definition: the members of the polis share, what they have in common
and what is the best for them
- According to Plato, philosophers understand what the Common Good command
thus they are best equipped to lead the Polis
- Deliberation, Public Speech and Dialogue are the means to achieve the
Common Good
- They are valued forms of political participation
Allegory of the cave
1. The Cave represents the Polis
2. The prisoners at the bottom of the cave represent life without education OR
when people are satisfied with not knowing the Truth
a. They live in a world of illusions and false opinions (the shadows on the
wall)
b. Puppet holders: corrupted politicians
3. The Ascent: Someone can only be dragged out by another:
a. Naturally they resist
b. Represents learning to think independently and educating yourself is hard
4. The Sun represents the Truth, the source of everything
a. Plato establishes a hierarchy between people who have seen the Sun and
who haven’t.
b. Only people who know Truth (philosophers) are fit to rule
c. Because they don’t want to!
5. The Return: those who have come out of the cave prefers never to go back, yet
they must
Democracy
- Definition: Method of collective decision making that is premised on the equality
of all members of the group
- Power is distributed as widely and equally as possible
- Direct democracy: in Ancient Greece, all eligible members directly participate in
politics
- Elective democracy: in US/Canada, citizens elect representatives to participate
in politics on their behalf
- The notion of equality varies: even if one vote per person cannot represent
equality
- Democracy is commonly associated with a basic set of institutions built around
competitive elections by which the citizens of a state choose and remove their
government leaders
- Legitimacy: The quality of someone or something that has a rightful claim to
exercising authority or power
- For Plato, legitimacy means having Philosopher-Kings in power
- Today although democracy is often subject to critique, there is a consensus that
the people should have a say in deciding who their government will be and how
they will be governed
Different types of Democracy
1. Representative Democracy
a. Basic elements:
i. Competitions between different options
ii. People choosing their government
iii. Equality (at least all adult citizens)
iv.
Accountability: people must have the possibility of changing their
government if they want.
2. Liberal Democracy
a. Based on Representative Democracy (free and fair elections)
b. Formed as a result of French & American revolution
c. Separation of powers
i. Judicial – Court, enforces the law
ii. Executive – Government, executes the law
iii. Legislative – Parliament, makes the law
d. Human and civil rights
i. Ex. Freedom of Speech, Protection from harm, Association and
petition, etc.
e. Free market economy
f. Rule of Law
i. It is a Liberal Democratic principle
ii. Everyone is equal under the law
iii. Laws are made based on due process, which must be transparent
and public
iv.
The court protects rule of law
3. Protective Democracy - Democratic Elitism
a. Sees participation as a burden that individual accept only to ensure that
politicians are accountable
b. Elitism is a perspective according to which state institutions are and
should be controlled by political elites
i.
Elites: the wealthiest, most educated, most influential (typically
male and white) people
c. Schumpeter argued that it’s possible to reconcile elitism and democracy:
i. Political elites play an inevitable role in modern politics and ordinary
citizens are happy to leave politics to elites
ii. Different elites represent different interests and values. These elites
compete for the privilege of representing the people
iii. Citizens choose their preferred elite, but they don’t choose their
preferred policies (not so democratic afterall)
4. Participatory Democracy
a. Citizen participation is said to deepen democracy by instilling civic values
and making them more informed
b. According to this perspective
i. Citizens who participate become more virtuous and intelligent
ii. They understand the need for cooperation
iii. And their own self-worth increases, as does their status in the eyes
of others
5. Deliberative Democracy
a. Choices must be developed through deliberation, debate and reflection
b. Public debate increases the rationality and legitimacy of the decisions that
are being made
c. Criticized for sugarcoating/exaggerating how people can reach a
consensus
Political Obligation
Why do the citizens of a state have a political obligation to obey the law?
- In democracy laws are made by elected representatives and are said to express
the will of the people
- Even if they are discriminatory
- The facts that laws are made democratically seems to give them a legitimacy
that they might not otherwise deserve
- Citizens recognize the laws’ legitimacy thus obey them with consent
- The problem of majority rule - tyranny of the majority
- Democracy implies being ruled according to the will of the majority
- The minority(ies) isn’t getting the same level of representation
- They can be discriminated against as a result of democratic
decisions
Negative vs, Positive Liberty
- Negative Liberty:
- The freedom from external constraints (freedom from something)
- In what areas should a person be left free to do or be what they want
without interference by other people or the government?
- Ex. American Bill of rights – the second amendment, right to bear
arms
- Positive Liberty
- The freedom to attain a desired outcome and self-development (freedom
to do)
- The support or intervention from the government that may be required to
allow a person to positively enjoy their freedom
- Ex. liberal welfare states (free education, health care, etc.)
States and Institutions
Institution
- Definition: Established organizations that present regular pattern of behavior
that give stability and predictability to social life
- Institution can be informal
- Ex. the family / social classes
- Not coded by law
- Other institutions can be formal
- Ex. court / government / political parties
- Functions are coded by law
The Sovereign State
- Definition: A political entity claiming a “monopoly of legitimate use of
physical force in enforcing its order within a given territorial area”
- The state has sovereignty, i.e. supreme power and authority inside a given
territory
- In theory, sovereignty is above challenge
- However, in practice it’s often challenged inside and outside the state
- De Jure Sovereignty: the legal right to rule supremely
- The legal status to be recognized by other states
- Ex. being a member of UN
- De Facto Sovereignty: the actual ability of a government to exercise political
power
- How resilient the state is to challenge to sovereignty
- Ex. country controlled by paramilitary rebels / warlords
Converting power into authority
- A threefold classification of authority
1. Traditional: based on traditional customs & values
a. Ex. hereditary chief / Divine right of kings
2. Charismatic: based on the personality and quality of a person
a. Ex. Alexander the Great / Mao Zedong
3. Legal-rational: based on the status of the ruler’s office and / or the
legality of the process by which they became ruler
a. Ex. election
A typology of the State
States can be classified based on:
1. How much they intervene in society
a. Night-watchman state:
i. Provide basic security
ii. Emphasizes negative liberty
b. Welfare state
i. Responsibility for basic well-being of people
ii. Basic redistribution of wealth but free market
c. Socialist State
i. Active intervention and wealth redistribution
2. How democratic they are
a. Liberal democracies
b. Illiberal democracies
c. Authoritarian regimes
d. Totalitarian regimes
3. How resilient or fragile they are
Pluralism
- Definition: The presence of multiple groups, ecah with their own interests and
pursuing their own objectives, is a normal feature of any society
- Groups compete to exercise political and economic influence inside society
- The role of the state is to regulate and mediate between these groups
- Power is diffuse or fragmented between different political actors
- Three key ideas
1. Political influence takes different forms
2. No group can claim to have exclusive influence on society, not even the
government
3. Even on a given topic, there is always a competition between different
groups holding different interests and visions
The New Right
- Definition: A movement aimed at implementing neoliberal ideas emphasizing
negative and individual freedom
- Neoliberal think the liberal welfare state has oversteeped, its original purpose
was the protection of individual liberties
- Liberalism: social-contract tradition
- Neoliberalism: the state has grown out of proportion both in terms of its
size and power
- Two reasons for this expansion
1. Democracy: politicians promise things to get elected and increases
state budget
2. State bureaucracy: state has interest in their own growth
- The New Right’s political program:
-
Tax cut
Roll back welfare services
Free trade
Privatization of state industries and corporations
The Modern State System
Definition: a large arena within which institutions compete or cooperate for
influence
Example:
- In the electoral system, parties compete to be elected and form the
government
- In the modern state system, states compete or cooperate for influencing
international relations and for their respective interests
The modern state system originated in the Peace of Westphalia of 1648 which ended
the Thirty Years War (1618 - 1648)
- It layed down the foundation for modern state system
- Three principles
1. State sovereignty and the right to self-determination
2. Legal equality between states
3. Nonintervention
State External Functions
- Managing relations with other states
- Protecting their population and territory from external threats
- By recognizing one another as sovereign states reinforce each other’s
authority as the legitimate rulers of defined territories
Internal Functions
- State has three main roles
1. Partisan: state pursue their own institutional interests, i.e. the continuity of
their independence and authority
2. Guardian: states work in the interests of society as a whole, with a focus
on unity
3. Tool: states can be used as a pliable instrument used by one or more
groups in society to achieve their own interests
Colonialism
- Definition: the practice of domination, which involves the political, economic and
cultural subjugation of one people to another
-
-
Settler colonialism: the practice of domination that involves the ongoing
and permanent settlement of a colonizing settler population. It implies land
appropriation and the displacement of indigenous populations
Imperialism: for a country to exercise command from abroad without
directly involving in the colonies
Ideologies
- Definition: a set of ideas designed to describe the existing political order,
present a vision of what the ideal order should look like and if necessary, lay the
means to get from what exists to what we want.
- The aim of an ideology is to act on the distribution of power in society and
promote a certain social and political order
- An ideology always involves normative elements because it’s grounded in values
and moral judgements about the political order and people living in it.
- Ideologies evolve overtime and have different strands or schools of thought
within them.
Left-Right Political Spectrum
- Invented during French Revolution 1789
- Revolutionaries created National Assembly
- Debates for the new constitution, especially concerning King’s power
- Left hand side wanted to limit it and transform French institutions
- Right hand side wanted King to retain power and maintain part of
monarchy
Classical Liberalism
1. Dominant ideologies in the West since the Enlightenment
2. Individual freedom & progress & individual rationalism
a. Emphasizes individual negative liberty
b. Based on social contract tradition
c. People have natural rights & importance of government not interfering with
them
i. Ex. liberty, property, self-achievement
d. Defense of Equality (but for whitemen only)
e. Private property / Economic Freedom / Free Market
f. Freedom of expression & association
g. Tolerance for different religious perspectives
3. Different Strands of Liberalism
a. Classical Liberalism (nowaday conservatism)
b. New Liberalism / Social Liberalism (Welfare State)
i. Emphasizes positive liberty
c. Libertarianism
d. Neoliberalism
i. Emphasizes free market
Classical Conservatism
It is developed as a negative response to Enlightenment values
- Respect for tradition, authority, law & order
- Negative view of human nature
- Which justifies to have strong government to suppress human nature
- Concern over moral relativism
- Definition: Multiple moral perspectives relative to one another
- Difficult to determine absolute good, lessening people’s moral
- Patriotism
- Negative attitude towards change
- Change needs to happen slowly
- Inequalities are considered natural / inevitable
Nationalism
Definition of Nation:
- A community, often referred to as a “people”, usually occupying a
homeland and sharing one or more cultural elements, such as a common
history / language / religion / set of customs. Nations may or may not
have states of their own.
- Nationalism: the ideology according to which nations are entitled to
political autonomy, usually in a state of its own.
- A nation-state is a state containing a single nation
- Ex. Japan / Iceland
- A multinational state is a state that contains more than one nation,
with a tradition of self-determination
- Ex. Canada / Spain
- Three aspects of the ideology
1. Political doctrine: The belief that the world is divided into
nations, each with a right to self-determination
2. Cultural Idea: the claim that the nation provides people their
primary form of belonging
3. Moral ideal: an ethics of heroic sacrifice justifying the use of
violence to defend the nation when it is threatened by
internal or external elements
-
Two types of Nationalism
- Civic Nationalism: implies loyalty to political institutions and
values, regardless of people’s ethnic background
- Ex. the Canadian identity
- Ethnic Nationalism: implies loyalty to a shared inheritance
based on culture, language or religion
- Ex. Quebecois Separatism
Fascism: an extreme form of Nationalism
Defined by the willingness to use violence & oppression of opposition
- Main characteristics:
- One’s nation seen as superior to all others
- The nation has total priority over the individual
- This nationalism relies on a racial hierarchy or racial supremacy
- Representation of the world or society as chaotic
- Authoritative / Totalitarian government
- Disregard for democratic institutions and mechanism that restrict government
actions
- Rejection of all forms of opposition
- Priority to repressive institution over social and legal ones
- Rejection of liberal ideals: equality / democracy / human rights
Civil Society and Participation
Nation Building:
- Definition: a process aimed at “developing a coherent sense of national identity
among disparate groups of people
- Refers to the efforts of different political actors to encourage the citizens’
sense of belonging to their nationality (aka. citizenship)
- The state itself is often the most important actor of nation-building because it
promotes its unity
Citizenship:
- Definition: a legal concept that defines who has rights and what these rights are
- Citizenship implies equality
- It delineates space for democratic participation
- regulates / mediates belongings among other factors
Citizenship Regime
- Definition: the institutional arrangements, rules and understanding that guide
and shape:
1. Concurrent policy decisions and expenditures of states
2. Problem definitions by states and citizens
-
3. Claims making by citizens
Three key elements
1. A citizenship regime involves the formal recognition of specific rights and
responsibilities
2. It prescribes the democratic rules that enable and limit the practice of
citizenship
3. It contributes to the definition of the nation and nation building efforts
Civil Society:
- Definition: the framework, within which those without political authority live their
lives
- Ex. economic relationships / family / kinship structures / religious
institutions
- It is a purely analytic concept
- Because it does not exist independently of political authority, nor vice
versa.
- Neither could long continue without the other
- Therefore, no very clean boundary can be drawn between the two
- Civil society is made of the interactions of different groups and parts of civil
societies
- It’s not a unified or necessarily coherent movement
- It often refers to the non-profit, non-governmental sector
- Civil society exists in various forms at all ends of the political spectrum
Interest Groups
- Consciously cohesive organization / Corporation / Social Class
- Interest groups are associations formed to promote sectional interest in the
political system
- Two perceptions
- Negative: they have negative influence on democracy because they
privilege some interests at the expense of public interest as a whole
- Positive: they serve to mobilize the population, encourage democratic
participation and facilitate the input of new ideas into the political process
- Two types
1. Insider Groups: influence government from within
a. Ex. lobbying
2. Outsider Groups: influence public opinion / mobilize civil society to put
pressure on government
a. Ex. protesting
Infrapolitics of Subaltern Groups
- Subaltern: group in unequal position to other group
- Infrapolitics: refers to the subtle way in which the less powerful subvert or
undermine the authority of the powerful
- Infrapolitics is the realm of informal leadership and non elites
- Weapon of the weak
- Ex. poaching / land-squatting / desertion (by slaves) / evasion /
foot-dragging
Postmodernism
- Questions the idea that any single ideology can encompass all facets of the
social and political worlds in which we live
- The postmodern approaches recognize the limitations inherent in any supposed
“master narrative” or metanarrative
- Celebrates diversity
- Power is used to construct metanarratives
- There are no foundations, no objective standards, no fixed points, above all no
universalism and no knowledge which is not constructed and relative
- Postmodern thinkers offer only critique, no solutions
- Postmodernism is more like an attitude
- Frequently associated with relativism i.e. the the belief that no political or
moral commitment is absolute / all views should be respected as
meaningful
Feminism
- As an ideology, it is premised on the idea that the status of women is unequal
to that of men in social, cultural, economic and political institutions
- Until recently, political theory has failed to recognize this oppression and the
depth of it
- Multiple categories
1. First Wave – Liberal Feminism
a. Late 19th - early 20th century
b. Argues that women should have the same formal rights as men in
the public spare, ex.
i.
Votes
ii. Adult states / legal adulthood
iii. Property right
iv.
Right to work
c. Priority was not changing the political and economic system,
i.
But increase access and representation
2. Second Wave – Socialist Feminism
a. Emerged in 1960s
b. Critiques the first wave
c. Argues that patriarchy is more generalized than the problem of
inequality in public institutions
i.
Male power is systematic, generalized and must be
eliminated
ii. Argues not only the equality of women, but their liberation
from male domination
3. Third Wave – Radical Feminism
a. Emerged in 1990s
b. Initiated by women of colour, queer and radical feminists criticizing
first and second wave feminism
c. Not a very cohesive wave, in part because it emphasizes the
importance of lived personal experience for understanding
oppression
d. Share a commitment to critique the limited scope of previous waves
and to diversify feminism
4. Fourth Wave – Intersectional Feminism
a. Early 2010s
b. Characterized by combining the use of digital tools and a strong
focus on intersectionality
i.
Intersectionality: the acknowledgement that everyone has
their own unique experiences of discrimination and
oppression and we must consider everything and anything
that can marginalise people – gender, race, class, sexual
orientation, physical ability, etc
c. This wave pays attention to inequality existing between women
i.
Ex. white women oppressing women of colour
International Relations
- Subfield of IR emerged after WW1
- Scholars wanted to understand the causes of war and how to make durable
peace
- Initially focused on relations between states
- For the purpose of IR, the state refers to the modern sovereign state,
which posses a legal personality and is recognized as possessing certain
rights and duties
- Three characteristics of a state
1. A permanent population
-
-
-
2. Territory
3. A government
Current view in IR: international and domestic spheres are interconnected
Globalization has rendered state borders more porous due to
- Economic relations
- Migration movements
- Circulation of ideas
There is greater cooperation and interdependence between different states and
regions of the world
It is increasingly difficult for states to control the flow of transnational influences
and factors
Multiplication of global actors
Examples
- International Organizations
- Intergovernmental Institutions (UN, EU)
- NGOs (MSF, Red Cross/Crescent)
- Social movements (environmentalism, human rights)
- Terrorist organizations
Cosmopolitanism
- An ethical perspective based on the idea that our first attachment
and loyalty should be with humanity as a whole
- Humans are equal members of a global citizenry
- Rights and responsibilities should be harmonized throughout the world to
build a strong global citizenship regime
- Calls for implementing universal norms throughout the world
Theoretical Approaches in IR
- A theory is a way of organizing the basic elements of our thinking about a
specific topic or the world around us
- A theoretical framework or an approach serves to organize a collection of facts
and ideas on a specific topic to further an analysis of it
- The subfield of IR is divided in different theoretical approaches
Anarchy Thesis in IR
- Refers to the idea that in the absence of an international sovereign to rule
over sovereign states, the normal condition of international relations is one
of anarchy
- IRs are characterized by the absence of a central government
- Not same as anarchism
Liberal Approach to IR
- The most natural condition of humanity is peace
- Fundamental to liberal approach in IR
- Grounded in an optimistic view about the possibility of achieving peace
in IR
- Proceeds from a positive view of human nature
- Human rationality and agency will lead to a peaceful world order
- Enlightenment beliefs
- With economic interdependence / cooperation, democratic institutions will
follow. With similar institutions, countries will be less likely to go to war
1. Because democracies respect each other in a way
2. People who vote don’t want to go to war
- Liberal International Order
- Describes a world order that is based on political and economic liberalism
- Based on a set of global, rule-based, structured relationships that serves
to mitigate the absence of a global ruler in international law
- The liberal approach presents a particularly strong belief in implementing
international organizations and NGOs to shape state preferences and
policies
Realist Approach to IR
- Claim to depict reality as it really is
- For Realists, IRs are equivalent to Hobbes’ view of the state of nature
- The state of nature is a representation of human beings before the
existence of government
- A condition of radical and unbearable equality
- All individuals are motivated by their self-preservation
- Scarcity of resources
- In the absence of a superior sovereign, the state of nature is a war of
everyman against everyman
- Realist proceed from a negative view of human nature
- IR as a game aimed at the survival the fittest
- A government should always prioritize the interest and the security of its state
- Therefore, power is valued and maximized to:
- Dominate other smaller states and be more resilient to bigger states,
- In order to achieve self-interest and security
- Through domination and power imbalance, order is created
- Justice and morality are secondary concerns
International Organization
-
-
-
Definition: exist on the basis of clusters of ideas and interest that exist at a
transnational level and actively work towards certain desired outcomes
May be public or private
May be made up of state or non-state actors
The term is used to understand international cooperation in the Liberal
International Order
Emergence of Modern IOs
- Communication and transportation technologies formed the basis for
important modern development in IOs. Ex.
- International Telegraph Union
- Universal Postal Union
- International Union of Railway Freight and Transportation
- Defeat the idea that cooperation is difficult to manage and establish
- In late 19th century with aspects of communication and transportation in
place, IOs spread to a range of areas including
- Public health (Red Cross)
- Human rights and peace building (Amnesty International)
- Industry and Trade
The League of Nations
- Created by the Treaty of Versailles of 1919
- Was intended to function as a collective security organization
- An intergovernmental institution in which member states promised
to respect one another’s economic and political independence and
territorial integrity
- Also committed to providing security to one another by preventing
conflicts
- It didn’t work
- Failed to act against the aggression of Japan in Manchuria 1931
and Italian invasion of Ethiopia 1935
- Leaders like Hitler saw this as an indication that members were too
afraid to act for fear of starting another World War
- Nevertheless it was still a precursor to the UN
The United Nations
- Built on the wartime cooperation between allied states, it became a more
truly international body with a formal charter setting out the rights and
obligations of members
- UN is made of many different organs that administer various aspects of
international cooperation
- The two main organs:
1. The Security Council
a. The most powerful one
b. Five permanent members: China, Franc, Russia, UK, US
i.
They have veto power: one member can stop
anything from happening
c. Ten non-permanent members elected for two-year terms by
the General Assembly
2. The General Assembly
a. The largest but probably the weakest
b. GA produces but cannot enforce resolutions
c. The role is still important as all members can have a say in
GA