POL208Y1 Lecture Notes - Lecture 6: Positive Feedback, Bretton Woods System, Democratic Peace Theory
Document Summary
Path dependence: past choices shape current decision ad even the choices available for making current decisions. Learning the wrong lessons: e. g. ww1 lesson, alliances were too rigid which was what got us into war, although weak alliances can be a bad thing as well. Which history: there are a lot of histories to learn from. How to account for radical change, the fact that systemic transformations have occurred before can help us understand systemic transformations in the future. Temporal focus: the obvious (though not always true) difference. History in order to shed light on the present (ir is more present oriented, how the history of processes unfolded) The method of history: narratives (history, patterns (ir) No but there are certain elements to make note of which reoccur. Possible responses: we have a hard time explaining anything, we can only explain a few things, but well. Search for patterns allows the testing of explanations and certain propositions.