Alternatives to Realism: Pluralist Liberalism and Globalism

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Alternatives to Realism Pluralist Liberalism
and Globalism


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Pluralism

(Nice Guys of IR Keohane, Nye,
Caporaso, Ruggie, Krasner)

• 1. Waltz is wrong to focus on security and
  conflict.
• 2. Other types of interaction are vital to
  understand the international system (e.g.,
  economic)
• --Leads to mutual interdependence

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Pluralism (continued)

• 3. Add economics to achieve an analytical
  clean-up of neo-realism.
• 4. Account for economic interests, not just
  security interests

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Pluralism (continued)

• 1. If states are bad, lets curb them.
• Disown Hobbes and downplay the
• state.
• 2. Create regimes
• 3. John Ruggie (1975)
• 4. Stephen Krasner (1982)

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Pluralism (continued)

• A regime is a set of expectations, rules and
  regulations, plans, organizational energies and
  financial commitments, which have been accepted
  by a group of states (Ruggie, 1975)

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Pluralism (continued)

Regimes as Social Institutions
They consist of implicit or explicit 1.
Principles 2. Norms 3. Rules and decision-making
procedures Examples--GATT and OPEC NB
Regimes are made up of states


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Pluralism (continued)

Regimes as Intermediate Factors
They help to account for cooperation and
discord. Behavior is limited by the norms and
rules of the regime. Regime theory
de-emphasizes the state.


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Pluralism (continued)

The Wall Begins to Crumble
Attacks on the State as the Unit of
Analysis Turbulence Rosenau (1990) Region
States Ohmae (1995) Non-Traditional Threats
terrorism, drugs, crime Information
Revolution Technology and Finance


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Globalism

A More Radical Critique
(Wallerstein, Polanyi, etc.)


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Globalism (Continued)

Rejection of liberalism and neo- classical
economic theory View of the International System
Integrated capitalist world economy Ceaseless
quest for accumulation


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Globalism (Continued)

Countries Belong to One of Three Categories

1. Core (capital intensive) 2. Periphery (labor
intensive 3. Semi-periphery (mixture)

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Globalism (continued)
External Behavior
Core States maintain the world economy by
military or other means
Change in the World Economy 1. Economic
contraction and expansion 2. Upward and
downward mobility of states


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Globalism (summary)
1. The behavior of states is governed by the
anarchic structure of the world economy. 2.
Conflict is natural in the world economy. 3.
Geographically-based actors are central. 4.
State behavior, however, is not rational. 5.
Nation-states consist of capital, labor, and the
means of coercion.


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Dependency Theory
Emphasis on the internal consequences of
dominance relations


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Dependency Theory (Continued)
Penetrationby a dominant society and its
forces Transnational corporations Military
forces Political advisors and missionaries



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Dependency Theory (Continued)
Penetrate weak, dependent societies Drain local
resources Transfer economic surplus to dominant
society Distorts the economic and social
structure


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Dependency Theory (Continued)
Policy Implications Self-reliant
development Encourage counter-structures,
policies, and values