POLB80H3 Chapter Notes - Chapter 10: Neoliberalism, Social Fact, Comparative Advantage
POLB80 Chapter 10 Notes: Social Constructivism
The rise of constructivism:
• Neo-Realism and Neo-liberalism Institutionalism used to dominate American IR theory
in the 1980s.
• Neo-Realism and Neo-Liberalism Institutionalism both shared a commitment to
individualism and materialism.
• Individualism is the view that actors have fixed interests and that the structure
constrains their behaviour.
• Materialism is the view that the structure that constrains behaviour is defined by
distribution of power, technology, and geography.
• Materialism and Individualism were challenged. For instance, the book World of Our
Making (1989) by Nicolas Onuf made the assertion that the notion of a world without
norms and ideas was not only nonsensical, but also that their inclusion was important
for understanding the behaviour of states and non-state actors, and why they saw the
world and themselves as they did.
• The second challenge was the end of the Cold War. Neo-Realism and Neo-Liberal
Institutionalism were both committed to individualism and materialism and therefore
could not adequately explain why the Cold War ended the way it did. The Cold War
ended because of the revolutionary impact of ideas to transform the organization of
ideas.
• The end of the Cold War also crippled the prominence of traditional security themes,
neo-realism comparative advantage, and other subjects that played to Constructivism
strengths.
• Constructivism provided insight into the dissolution and creation of new regional and
international orders. It offered a new look at International Relations.
Constructivism:
• Constructivism is a social theory and not a substantive theory of international politics.
• Social Theory is broadly concerned with how to conceptualize the relationship between
agents and structures.
• Substantive Theory offers specific claims and hypotheses about patterns in world
politics.
• Despite there being many different types of Constructivism, they share many important
concepts.
• Idealism demands that we take seriously the role of ideas in world politics. The world
may be defined by material and ideational forces, however these ideas are not the same
to beliefs or psychological states. Instead, these ideas are social. Our mental maps are
shaped by collectively held ideas such as knowledge, symbols, language and rules.
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Idealism does not reject material reality but instead observes that the meaning and
construction of that material reality is dependent on ideas and interpretation.
• Constructivism also accepts some form of holism or structuralism.
• Holism- The world is irreducibly social and cannot be decomposed into the properties
of already existing actors. Holism also allows for agency, recognizing that agents have
some autonomy and their interactions help to construct, reproduce and transform those
structures.
• Social construction of reality- This has a number of related elements. One is the
emphasis on the socially constructed nature of actors and their identities and interests.
Actors are not born outside of and prior to society. Instead, actors are produced and
created by their cultural environment: nurture, not nature. This points to points to the
importance of identity and the social construction of interest.
• Another element is how knowledge- that is, symbols, rules, concepts and categories-
shapes how individuals construct and interpret their world. Reality does not exist out
there waiting to be discovered; instead, historically produced and culturally bound
knowledge enables individuals to construct and give meaning to reality. In other words,
existing categories help us to understand, define and make sense of the world.
• Social facts- There are those things whose existence is dependent on human
agreement, and those things whose existence is not. For example, facts such as gravity
and ocean exist independently of human agreement of human agreement and will
continue to exist. Social facts, on the other hand, are dependent on human agreement
and are taken for granted. For example, sovereignty and human rights are social facts.
Their existence depends on human agreement, they will only exist so long as that
agreement exists, and their existence shapes how we categorize the wold and what we
do.
• Constructivists also are concerned with norms and rules which come in 2 forms-
Regulative rules and Constitutive rules.
• Regulative rules regulate already existing activities- rules for the road determine how to
die; the Wold Tade Ogaizatios ules egulate tade.
• Constitutive rules create the very possibility for these activities. For example, the rules
of rugby help to define the game itself.
• The rules of sovereignty not only regulate state practices but also make possible the
very idea of a sovereign state. The norms also vary in terms of their institutionalization,
that is, how much they are taken for granted.
• Furthermore, rules are not static, but rather are revised through practice, reflection and
arguments by actors regarding how they should be applied to new situations. Actors
also try to change the norms that subsequently guide and constitute state identities and
interests.
• Logic of consequences- The logic of consequences attributes action to the anticipated
costs and benefits, mindful that other actors are doing just the same.
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Document Summary
The rise of constructivism: neo-realism and neo-liberalism institutionalism used to dominate american ir theory in the 1980s, neo-realism and neo-liberalism institutionalism both shared a commitment to individualism and materialism. Institutionalism were both committed to individualism and materialism and therefore could not adequately explain why the cold war ended the way it did. It offered a new look at international relations. Idealism demands that we take seriously the role of ideas in world politics. The world may be defined by material and ideational forces, however these ideas are not the same to beliefs or psychological states. Our mental maps are shaped by collectively held ideas such as knowledge, symbols, language and rules. Idealism does not reject material reality but instead observes that the meaning and construction of that material reality is dependent on ideas and interpretation: constructivism also accepts some form of holism or structuralism.
