POLSCI 2I03 Lecture Notes - Lecture 5: French Revolution, Postmodern Architecture, Capital Accumulation

• School: McMaster University
• Department: Political Science
• Course: POLSCI 2I03
• Professor: Andrew Lui

Document Summary

Constructivism is an approach that emphasizes empiricism and theory. It has constructed a model to at least explain as to why states behave the way they do. Waltz says that his theory does not adequately state how states behave, doesn"t really try to explain reality. Constructivism says we do try to model on reality; we try to explain how states behave in certain areas like human rights etc. , in those institutions that they have an identical behaviour. From failure of other theories to try to even think about the end of cold war, constructivism came in and went back to try to explain why soviet union demised, and the fall of the berlin wall. They looked within the union itself, culture, individual leadership, the new thinking, and they came to conclusion that they were what waltz would say reductionist factors that made it change on the system level.