Download - IPE Report - Rationalizing Politics (Milner)
-
8/4/2019 IPE Report - Rationalizing Politics (Milner)
1/16
Rationalizing PoliticsThe Emerging Synthesis of International, American andComparative Politics
(Helen Milner)
International Political Economy (CUK Spring 2011)
Prepared by: Eugen R. Bunao
April 5, 2011
-
8/4/2019 IPE Report - Rationalizing Politics (Milner)
2/16
International vs. Domestic Politics
There is a prevailing framework that.
IR is a separate discipline distinct from other major fields in political
science
that politics in the international system is radically different from politicsdomestically
limited the understanding of IR
But this separation
INTERNATIONAL DOMESTIC
-
8/4/2019 IPE Report - Rationalizing Politics (Milner)
3/16
International vs. Domestic Politics
Why focus on Domestic Politics?IR theorists must bring a systematic analysis of domestic politics
into the field.
Integrate Domestic IssuesThe spread of democratization
Focus on balance of military power is insufficient
Assumption stat states are stable, unitary actors is
misleading
Relations are affected by other actors as well (MNCs,
NATO, EU)
-
8/4/2019 IPE Report - Rationalizing Politics (Milner)
4/16
International vs. Domestic Politics
A way forward
IR
AmericanPolitics
ComparativePolitics
acquire a better understanding of both the domestic and international institutions
that affect world politics
-
8/4/2019 IPE Report - Rationalizing Politics (Milner)
5/16
International vs. Domestic Politics
A way forward
New Thrust:closer attention to the strategic interaction among agents
within these institutions
Rationalist Research
Paradigm(Rationalist Institutionalism)
-
8/4/2019 IPE Report - Rationalizing Politics (Milner)
6/16
The Rationalist Research Paradigm
An area where degree of divergence between IR and political
science has lessened in both substance and methodology
focus is on institutional analysis developed within the rationalist
framework
RationalistInstitutionalism
Aggregation of diverse preferences of
individuals in to a collective outcome
Shape and reflect strategic interaction amongagents (A CONSTRAINING STRUCTURE)
attention to both institutions and to strategic
interaction among agents
INSTITUTIONS
-
8/4/2019 IPE Report - Rationalizing Politics (Milner)
7/16
Rationalist Institutionalism
Challenges two main assumptions in IR theory
1
2
States are unitary
actors
States are most
important, if not the
sole, actors in
international politics
Bring domestic actors in (e.g.
bureaucracies, legislature, etc.)
show how diverse domestic preferences
are aggregated into collective choices (ex.
Foreign policy), given different political
institutions
WHAT TO DO:
focus on a broader set of actorsin international relations
(institutions)
apply rationalist institutional
analysis
-
8/4/2019 IPE Report - Rationalizing Politics (Milner)
8/16
Rationalist Institutionalism
Dimensions covered
Nature of actors (alternative to the state-centric
approach)
Importance of institutions in situations of strategic
interactions
Methodology of non-cooperative game theory
-
8/4/2019 IPE Report - Rationalizing Politics (Milner)
9/16
Whyhas IR diverged?
1950s
1960s
a strong consensus among leading IR theorists
about the autonomy of the field (Frederick Dunn,
Stanley Hoffman)
During the inter-war and early post-WWII
periods, scholars in Britain and the US set
up independent masters and PhDprograms in IR (i.e. Yale, LSE)
2 main reasons for the autonomy of IR:
- The field is broader than mere political science it is interdisciplinary
(William Fox)
-questions arise out of the division of the world into autonomous units
(no central authority in the world)
-
8/4/2019 IPE Report - Rationalizing Politics (Milner)
10/16
Whyhas IR diverged?
Assumptions that helped turned IR into a narrower, separate discipline
international politics primarily involve states that could be thought of as units
operating in an anarchic environment
state-centric view of the world
Realist theory and its hegemony in IR helped to magnify the distinctions between
domestic and international politics
neglected other factors such as IOs, domestic politics, cooperation andbargaining while focused on conflict, states etc.
IR = REALISM???
Relaxing the core assumptions
of a field may lead to new
insights
-
8/4/2019 IPE Report - Rationalizing Politics (Milner)
11/16
Relaxing theassumption that
states are units
-
8/4/2019 IPE Report - Rationalizing Politics (Milner)
12/16
Quadrant 1 Quadrant 2
Quadrant 3 Quadrant 4
ACTORS & THEIR ENVIRONMENTS
States as units(representative actor)
States as polyarchy
(political economy)
Decision-theoretic
(small-country assumption)
Strategic Interaction
(large-country assumption)
A
C
T
O
R
S
ENVIRONMENTS
Perfect Markets(Waltz, Lake, Krasner)
Game Theory(Jervis, Axelrod, Powell)
Domestic Sources(Allison, Katzenstein,
Milner, etc.)
Two-level games(Snyder &Diesing,
Putnam, Fearon, etc.)
-
8/4/2019 IPE Report - Rationalizing Politics (Milner)
13/16
States as Units vs. Polyarchy
STATES AS UNITS
(REPRESENTATIVE ACTOR
STATES ARE NO LONGER UNITS
(POLYARCHY)
Main actor in the international politics is
the state as a unit
the state can be thought of as the
representative actor for all its domestic
politics
implies that the state possesses a single
set of preferences which it attempts to
forward in intl politics
national interest is just assumed
Rejects the idea of representative actor
reject the idea of a single utility function to
represent all agents in society
Actors domestically have distinct
preferences
Actors: are no longer the states; rather,
governments composed of central decision
makers, legislatures, bureaucracies, and
other domestic groups become the agents
National interest is the result of the
strategic interactions among these groups
differences among states in their
internal characteristics have
important effectson
international politics
-
8/4/2019 IPE Report - Rationalizing Politics (Milner)
14/16
Domestic vs. International Politics
Hierarchy AutonomyPOLYARCHYDomestic political systems
top-down command
Relations are super and
subordination
Some command others obey
centralized
International political system
Parts stand in relation of
coordination
Formally, each is the equal of others
None is entitled to command or
required to obey
decentralized
There is nosingle group at the top
Actors preferences differ
Decision-making must be shared albeit unequally
Strategic interaction among the players within certain political
institutions isof central importance to policy choices
-
8/4/2019 IPE Report - Rationalizing Politics (Milner)
15/16
Variables
Q1
(Decision-
Theoretic
States asUnits)
Q2
(Strategic
Interaction
States asUnits)
Q3
(Decision-
theoretic
States asPolyarchy)
Q4
(Strategic
Interaction
States asPolyarchy)
Behavior of
States
Independent
Maximizes
ones own utility
all states
balance in orderto preserve
themselves, no
matter what
other states are
doing (Waltz)
-
8/4/2019 IPE Report - Rationalizing Politics (Milner)
16/16
Variables
Q1
(Decision-Theoretic
States as Units)
Q2
(Strategic Interaction
States as Units)
Behavior of StatesIndependent
Maximizes ones own utility
all states balance in order to
preserve themselves, no matter
what other states are doing (Waltz)
Interaction of unitary states is a
game of strategic interaction
Bargaining is the norm
Interdependent
Analogy Competitive Markets (firms are
numerous and small that they dont
affect each other)
oligopolistic markets (firms are
large and few that their behavior
affect one another)
Role of institutions None Yes (explicit mechanisms for
arriving at collective outcomes)