IOs and realism

Question 1

Why do JOSEPH and GRIECO1988, not belive that neoliberalism work?

Answer 1

Neoliberal institutionalists misconstrue the realist analysis of international anarchy and, therefore, misunderstand the realist analysis of the effects of anarchy on the preferences and actions of states.
* Neoliberal institutionalists fail to consider the threat of war posed by international anarchy, and this allows them to ignore the question of relative gains and assume that states only desire absolute gains
* In doing so, they fail to identify a major source of state reluctance to cooperate internationally

Question 2

What are the agreements between institutionalists and Realists?

Answer 2

• States are the major actors
• Rational egoists
• International system anarchic
• It lacks a central authority with enforcement capacity

Question 3

What are the main differences between neoliberal institutionalists and realsits?

Answer 3

• Neoliberal institutionalists believe that, despite anarchy, cooperative solutions to mixed-interest situations (e.g., prisoner’s dilemma) are possible
• Conditional tit-for-that strategies
• Repeated games
• Verification and sanctions possible at a reasonable cost
• Delegitimation of defection (reputational costs for defectors)

Question 4

WHAT’S WRONG WITH THE
INSTITUTIONALIST ACCOUNT JOSEPH and GRIECO1988?

Answer 4

• Focus on absolute gains (optimal staretgy in PD to
  achieve highest possible score –> CC)
• States atomistic
• A “player responds to an iterated conventional Prisoner’s
  Dilemma with conditional cooperation solely out of a
  desire to maximize its individual long-term total payoffs”
  p. 496
• Thus, a state’s utility function is in direct proportion to
  payoff (U=V)
• Major constraint for cooperation: cheating