Chapter 9

Question 1

Define hegemony

Answer 1

A system regulated by a dominant leader, or political (and/or economic) domination of the region, usually by a superpower. In realist theory, the influence a great power is able to establish on other states in the system; extent of influence ranges from leadership to dominance. It is also power and control exercised by a leading state over other states.

Question 2

Define poverty

Answer 2

In the orthodox view, a situation suffered by people who do not have the money to buy food and satisfy other basic material needs. In the alternative view, a situation suffered by people who are not able to meet their material and non-material needs through their own effort.

Question 3

Define materialism

Answer 3

See Marxism. The view that the most fundamental feature of society is the organization of material forces. Material forces include natural resources, geography, military power, and technology. To understand how the world works, therefore, requires taking these fundamentals into account. For IR scholars, this leads to forms of technological determinism or the distribution of military power for understanding the state’s foreign policy and patterns of international politics.

Question 4

Define means of production

Answer 4

In Marxist theory, these are the elements that combine the production process. They include labour as well as the tools and technology available during any given historical period.

Question 5

Define relations of production

Answer 5

In Marxist theory, relations of production link and organize the means of production in the production process. They involve both the technical and institutional relationships necessary to allow the production process to proceed, as well as the broader structures that govern the control of the means of production, and control the end of product(s) of that process. Private property and wage labour are two of the key features of the relations of production in capitalist society.

Question 6

Define institutions

Answer 6

Persistent and having connected sets of rules and practices that prescribe roles, constrain activity, and shape the expectations of actors. Institutions may include organizations, bureaucratic agencies, treaties and agreements, and informal practices that states accept as binding.

Question 7

Define class

Answer 7

Groups of people in society who share similar characteristics. Used by Marxists in an economic sense to denote people who share the same relationship to the means of production - in capitalist society the bourgeoisie, which owns the means of production, and the proletariat, which do not own the means of production and in order to subsist must sell their labour.

Question 8

Define emanicpation

Answer 8

The achievement of equal political, economic, and social rights.

Question 9

Define imperialism

Answer 9

The practice of foreign conquest and rule in the context of global relations of hierarchy and subordination. It can lead to the establishment of an empire.

Question 10

Define harmony of interests

Answer 10

Common among nineteenth century liberals was the idea of a natural order between peoples which had been corrupted by undemocratic state leaders and outdated policies such as the balance of power. If these distortions could be swept away, they believed, we would find that there were no real conflicts between peoples.

Question 11

Define transition

Answer 11

Usually taken to mean the lengthy period between the end of communist planning in the Soviet bloc and the final emergence of a full functioning democratic capitalist system.

Question 12

Define capabilities

Answer 12

The resources that are under and actor’s direct control, such as population or size of territory, resources, economic strength, military capability, and competence.

Question 13

Define networks

Answer 13

Any structure of communication for individuals and/or organizations to exchange information, share experiences, or discuss political goals and tactics.

Question 14

Define neo-realism

Answer 14

Modification of the realist approach, by recognizing that economic resources (in addition to military capabilities) are a basis for exercising influence, and also an attempt to make realism ‘more scientific’ by borrowing models from economics and behavioural social science to explain international politics.

Question 15

Define critical theory

Answer 15

Attempts to challenge the prevailing order by seeking out, analysing, and, where possible, assisting social processes that can potentially lead to emancipatory change.

Question 16

Define security

Answer 16

In finance, a control with a claim to future payments in which (in contrast to bank credits) there is a direct and formally identified relationship between the investor and the borrower; also unlike bank loans, securities are traded in markets.