LECTURE 5 - Constructivism Flashcards
GENERAL: 3 connected ropes of int law and poli
- realism
- liberalism
- constructivism
anarchy
- absence of gov
- : state of lawlessness or political disorder due to the absence of governmental authority
implications of anarchy for int poli
- No central government in
international system
– No coercive mechanism for
compelling compliance to
rules and laws
– No centralized authority for
brokering interests,
compelling through threat of
punishment compliance with
contracts
– Coercive application of
relative power against other
‘actors’ (i.e., states) remains
an option - no overarching order of government in the international system
- internationally, you have to be able to strike because of this^^
7 central concepts of liberalism
- liberty,
- rationality,
- individuality,
- progress,
- sociability,
- the general interest,
- limited and accountable power
The point of contention… where does authority sit? because - individual country = primary actor in int poli
- concept of state is explicitly economic in liberalism - not the director but the REFEREE of the economy
- liberalism means something dif in canada vs USA
reinvention of the state (how has the purpose of the state evolved?)
initially:
establishment of order and security living under a unified poli system
now:
State becomes guarantor of a set of rights:
– Includes freedom of trade, property rights
– Generates explicit economic role for state
– Not as director of economic activity, but as referee
* Interdependence creates possibility for positive-sum games:
mutual cooperation for mutual benefit
* Values & norms can form basis for mutual cooperation
social constructivism (abstract level)
Central is the authority to ‘define’, to guide the social
construction of reality
– Creates boundaries on what can know and think
- how you form norms in society
knowledge arises out of human relationships. Thus, what we take to be true and objective is the result of social processes that take place in historical and cultural contexts.
social constructivism: proximity
- Consciousness is always intentional
- Different objects present
themselves as constituents of
different spheres of reality
– consciousness is capable of
moving through different
spheres of reality - interchange causes ideas to shift and pollinate
- intersubjectivity - why can we look at a stop sign in Russia and know that it means stop
- shared meaning allows us to interact socially (common. sense)
- multiculturalism - works as long as it abides by the pillars of liberalism - acceptance and equality
Social Constructivism: Collectively Constructed
Social order exists only as a product of
human activity
– Social order is the result of past human
activity, habits acquired and kept
– Social order exists only and insofar as
human activity continues to produce it
– Social order is a conscious product
driven by the unconscious habit
* It can be formally codified, but also
interrogated and changed through social will (ie. respecting pronouns in Canadian code of human rights)
habitualization
key for construction of social order
– Narrows ranges of choices by setting
the ‘normal’
* Think of your instinctive reaction to
scenes of people with no masks in a
social setting now
* Habitualization precedes any
institutionalization
– Can be formal or informal
* Bylaws for masks in place now, but will
people keep wearing them as pandemic
eases away?
habitualization also…
Provides direction for society
– Establishes what is acceptable and not
– Allows for predictability of outcome
* Creates the basis for
institutionalization
– A set of habits and outcomes available for
all in the group
– Establishes roles for different actors
* Central to codification of social reality
in laws and institutions that form,
monitor, and enforce legal frameworks
– Question is how does this operate
internationally
– Question is how the habits, shared
understandings get changed
– Question is what happens when different
societies interact with very different
socially constructed realities
why do norms/constructs matter to the creation/development of laws/our study of int law and poli?
Law is the codification of ‘norms’
* Norms are socially constructed
* Actors have an interest in getting some
norms privileged over others, of trying
to embed particular interests in
normative frameworks
– Realism forms an important angle
for thinking this through,
sometimes
* The social construction of reality and
realist contest for the framing and
enforcement of rules and norms are
important for understanding
international law and the politics
behind it.
- order in society, predictability, then laws
- laws = predictability
- realism - negotiation process
- within construction of norms internationally = find the place where we run into conflict
liberalism for native Americans (esp. Huron)
- No natural rulers, and leadership only by
consent, - Everything debated orally with skill in this
conferring influence - Each individual equal to all others
- The individual does need the collective to
survive - Esteem comes from helping those in need;
unthinkable to allow someone to go hungry or
without shelter, - No basis for conferring wealth in material
possessions into power over others
