Alternatives to Realism: Pluralist Liberalism and

Globalism

Pluralism

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

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

Pluralism (continued)

3. Add economics to achieve an “analytical clean-up” of neo-realism.

4. Account for economic interests, not just security interests

Pluralism (continued)

1. If states are bad, let’s curb them.

Disown Hobbes and downplay the

state.

2. Create “regimes”

3. John Ruggie (1975)

4. Stephen Krasner (1982)

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)

Pluralism (continued)

Regimes as “Social Institutions”

They consist of implicit or explicit:

1. Principles2. Norms3. Rules and decision-making procedures Examples--GATT and OPEC

NB: Regimes are made up of states

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.

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,

crimeInformation RevolutionTechnology and Finance

Globalism

(Wallerstein, Polanyi, etc.)

A More Radical Critique

Globalism (Continued)

Rejection of liberalism and neo- classical economic theory

View of the International System:

Integrated capitalist world economyCeaseless quest for accumulation

Globalism (Continued)Countries Belong to One of Three Categories:

1. Core (capital intensive)2. Periphery (labor intensive3. Semi-periphery (mixture)

Globalism (continued)External Behavior

Core States maintain the world economy by military or other means

Change in the World Economy1. Economic contraction and expansion2. Upward and downward mobility of states

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.

Dependency Theory

Emphasis on the internal consequences of dominance relations

Dependency Theory (Continued)

“Penetration”by a dominant society and its forces

Transnational corporationsMilitary forcesPolitical advisors and missionaries

Dependency Theory (Continued)

Penetrate weak, dependent societiesDrain local resourcesTransfer economic surplus to dominant

societyDistorts the economic and social structure

Dependency Theory (Continued)

Policy Implications

Self-reliant developmentEncourage counter-structures, policies, and values