POLI 244 Lecture Notes - Lecture 5: Anthony Giddens, Cognitive Dissonance, Postpositivism
5 Dec 2017
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Document Summary
The critique sc has regarding realism and liberalism is that they both see power as materialistic and neglect soft power, public opinion and ideas. Came up in the 1980s and has been gaining popularity when realism had no explanation for the emerging of a unipolar system. Especially popular in north america, since in europe int. Claims that if we don"t incooperate the study of meaning in ir we miss important things. Focus on human consciousness of its place in world affairs (not external) The international system only exists as an intersubjective awareness. Ir is constituted by ideas and meaning not material and cannot be studies like the natural sciences. It doesn"t exist apart from human thought. Constructivism includes both social theory (general) and a number of substantive (specific) ir theories. What a state does is always an action, never mere behavior (actions = behavior + meaning)
