Liberalism Flashcards
What is the four-dimensional definition of liberalism?
1) All citizens are juridically equal and possess certain basic rights to education, access to a free press, and religious toleration.
2) The legislative assembly of the sate possesses only the authority invested in it by he people, whose basic rights it is not permitted to abuse.
3) a key dimension of the liberty of the individual is the right to own property, including productive forces.
4) liberalism contends that the most effective system of economic exchange is one that is largely market-driven and not one that is subordinate to bureaucratic regulation and control, either domestically or internationally.
What did the imperative to achieve peace require for Kant?
- Transformation of individual consciousness
- republican constitutionalism
- a federal contract among states to abolish war (like a permanent peace treaty)
The democratic peace theory entails that democratic countries are less likely to engage in armed conflicts with each other, but why?
The most convincing explanation of all is the simple fact that liberal states tend to be in relations of amity (friendship) with other liberal states. War between USA and Canada would be unthinkable because they are friends.
What was the core liberalist belief of the 19th century with regard to peace among nations?
That free trade would create a more peaceful world order. Trade brings mutual gains to all states, irrespective of their size or the nature of their economies.
What is harmony of interests?
The idea of a natural order between peoples which had been corrupted by undemocratic state leaders and outdated policies such as the balance of power.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 distortion could be swept away, we would find that there were no real conflicts between peoples.
What was Woodrow Wilson’s idea of handling the international state of anarchy?
According to the US president, peace could only be secured with the creation of an international organization to regulate international anarchy.
How did the veto system come to be in UN charter?
After the failure of the toothless organization of the league of nations, the framers of the Charter of the UN were aware of the need for a consensus among the great powers in order for enforcement action to be taken - hence the veto system.
What is pluralism?
IR theorists who rejected the realist view of the primacy of the state, the priority of national security, and the assumption that states are unitary actors. It is the theoretical approach that considers all organized groups as being potential political actors and analyses the processes by which actors mobilize support to achieve policy goals.
could be transnational actors like organizations and corporations.
What was the difference between neorealists and neoliberalists?
Neoliberals conceded that the core assumptions of neorealism - anarchy, centraility of states, and rationalist approach to social scientific enquiry - were correct. However, they argue that anarchy does not mean that durable patterns of cooperation are impossible. Also, they though that states would enter into cooperative agreements if the gains were evenly shared. Neorealists said, that it is relative gains, not mutual that matters.
What two factors set neoliberalism apart from democratic peace liberalism, and the liberalists of the inter-war period?
1) Neoliberalism maintains that academic enquiry should be guided by a commitment to a scientific approach to theory-building. This separation of fact and value puts neoliberals on the positivist side of the methodological divide.
2) neoliberal writers are critical of 19th century liberals’ naive assumption that commerce breeds peace. A free trade system, according to neoliberals, provides incentives for cooperation but does not guarantee it.
John Ikenberry maps liberalism’s influence through three phases, conveniently labelled ‘liberal internationalism 1.0,2.0,3.0. Expalin them.
- 0 -> corresponds with the inter-war period and the failed attempt to replace the old balance of power order with the rule of law.
- 0 -> After 1945. America embedded certain fundamental liberal principles into the regulatory rules and institutions of international society. While America had more power than other states in the system, it also accepted a greater share of the burden when it came to setting and upholding the rules of economic and security governance. This is having a crisis today.
why?
American hegemony is no longer an adequate framework to support liberal international order. 2011 NATO led controversial war against Libya is an example of the deep division that Western leadership is generating.
3.0 -> Requires a movement away from a sovereignty-based order towards one where global institutions become the new rulers of the world. While less tied to american power, the governance institutions of the future will nevertheless be driven by liberal values.
