ipe report - rationalizing politics (milner)

8/4/2019 IPE Report - Rationalizing Politics (Milner)

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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


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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


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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)


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A way forward

IR

AmericanPolitics

ComparativePolitics

acquire a better understanding of both the domestic and international institutions

that affect world politics


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A way forward

New Thrust:closer attention to the strategic interaction among agents

within these institutions

Rationalist Research

Paradigm(Rationalist Institutionalism)


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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


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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


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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


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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)


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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


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Relaxing theassumption that

states are units


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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.)


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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


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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


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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)


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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)

ipe report - rationalizing politics (milner)

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