structure vs agency

Question 1

what is agency (or intentionalism)?

Answer 1

capacity of individual humans to act independently and make their own free choices

Question 2

what is structure?

Answer 2

refers to those factors that seem to limit or influence, the opportunities that individuals have

Question 3

how can the structure/agency debate be seen in regards to the fall of the Berlin wall?

Answer 3

structural: economic stagnation, 
forces of international policies
agency: 
actions of civil rights groups, 
actions of GDR citizens themselves, 
(In)actions of GDR leadership

Question 4

what do political scientists hope to get from the agency/structure debate?

Answer 4

not looking for a solution, just to be aware of the forces involved

Question 5

what is structuralism?

Answer 5

Societies can be analysed as a system
, in order to explain individual actions

Question 6

what does Althusser have to say about social reality?

Answer 6

a (very) complex interaction of economic political and ideological forces, which all have relative autonomy from each other, however individuals are slaves to these structures which they don’t even realise

Question 7

what is rational choice theory?

Answer 7

humans are rational beings, who make calculations about the best course of action and choose the best for themselves

Question 8

what is public choice theory?

Answer 8

Politicians and bureaucrats will seek to maximise their own interests

Question 9

what is Giddens’ structuration theory?

Answer 9

arguing that agency and structuralism aren’t separate entities, mutually dependent and internally related, structure exists through agency and agents also have rules that they have no choice but to abide by, two sides of the same coin

Question 10

why did Giddens’ come up with the structuration theory?

Answer 10

to bridge the divide between structuralists and intentionalists

Question 11

what are the 5 broad theories of the structure vs agency debate?

Answer 11

1. Structuralism/materialism
2. Intentionalism/idealism
3. A dialectic position
4. An additive position
5. Post-structuralist position

Question 12

what is a dialectic position to structure vs agency?

Answer 12

opposing views working together to find the truth

Question 13

what is an additive position to structure vs agency?

Answer 13

associated with positivist and empiricist position, both structural and intentional factors influence voting decisions

Question 14

what is the postmodernist position to structure vs agency?

Answer 14

structures don’t exist without agent’s discourse, distinction between structure and agency is not ontological

Question 15

what did Bell and Hindmoor say about context?

Answer 15

see the broader economic, political and institutional context of the time as constraining the government

Question 16

what did Archer focus on when describing agency?

Answer 16

reflexivity, ‘agents deliberate upon a precise course of action in view of their concerns and in light of the circumstances they confront’

Question 17

what does Bell also point out affects an individuals agency?

Answer 17

focuses on the capacities individuals must use the resources at their disposal, to utilise their agency

Question 18

what was Archer’s approach?

Answer 18

Morphogenetic approach

Question 19

what does the Morphogenetic approach entail?

Answer 19

three stage cycle: T1, structural conditioning, T2, social interaction and T3, structural elaboration. At T4, the structural changes are either changed or, much less likely, not changed, disagrees that there is any ontological separation between agency and structure

Question 20

what was Hay’s approach?

Answer 20

the strategic relational approach

Question 21

what does the strategic relational approach entail?

Answer 21

both don’t have an existence without each other, not two sides of a coin but two metals in the alloy from which the coin was made, structure has no independent causal power, core of the approach ‘is the interaction between strategic actors and the strategic context within which they find themselves’

Question 22

what are the features of the new institutionalism approach? (6)

Answer 22

1. Actors are strategic
2. Ideas matter for providing a guide to the action
3. Interests are social constructs, not rooted in material interests
4. The functionality/disfunctionality of institutions/structures is an open question in both empirical and historical terms
5. Focus on ideational, as well as institutional path dependence
6. Aim is to identify the extent to which – through processes of normalisation and institutional-embedding – established ideas become codified, serving as cognitive filters through which actors come to interpret environmental signals’ (Hay)

Question 23

why does social change happen, according to new institutionalists?

Answer 23

ideas shape the context within which people act, and the context is strategically selective, favouring some strategies over others (shared by both thick and thin constructivists)

Question 24

how can this be applied to globalisation?

Answer 24

Best understood as a political consequence rather than an economic cause – by acting as if it exists, they are making it exist - ideational not material process

Question 25

what is Hay’s conception of time?

Answer 25

• Punctuated equilibrium – significant amount of political change occurs in small bursts, followed by long periods of inactivity
• Liberal democracy is usually able to respond successfully to societal demands…but also is prone to periodic moments of crisis

Question 26

what is Tonkiss’ conception of time?

Answer 26

Draws on Foucault, for whom change was accidental and unpredictable, a poststructuralist

Question 27

what is Bates’ conception of time?

Answer 27

time is not linear or cyclical in order to overcome the dualism between structure/agency and stability/change

Question 28

what does Adam add to the flexi-time model?

Answer 28

open to variation, change is context based and open to interpretation

Question 29

what is punctuated equilibrium?

Answer 29

significant amount of political change occurs in small bursts, followed by long periods of inactivity

Question 30

How can Hay’s conception of time be criticised? (2)

Answer 30

issues with relative stasis and rapid change

On the spatial dimension

Question 31

How can issues with relative stasis and rapid change be seen? (3)

Answer 31

• Treats stability and change as a dualism
• Empirical analyses prioritise agency over structure, and ideational over the material
• Could be addressed by developing a more adequate temporal and spatial understanding of the relationship

Question 32

How can Hay’s theory be criticised in relation to the spatial dimension? (3)

Answer 32

• There is some consideration of the spatial in politics, however there is little accompanying ontological reflection on the nature of space
• Seems odd that Hay argues that change should be treated as an open and empirical question, and on the same page provides a very neat theoretical model
• Change has a spatial dimension, and a complex relationship with stability