Theory Matters

Question 1

who created the trichotomy of IPE theory

Answer 1

gilpin

Question 2

explain trichotomy

Answer 2

• Three ideologies- positioned as equal, but competing views

* Self-contained, coherent approaches/explanations

Question 3

what are the three ideologies from GIlpin

Answer 3

realism
liberalism
constructivism

Question 4

what is realism also known as

Answer 4

statism, mercantilism

Question 5

what is liberalism also known as

Answer 5

institutionalism

Question 6

what is constructivism also known as

Answer 6

CRITCAL IPE , marxism, feminism, world systems theory and dependant theory, gramscian theory

Question 7

what are the 3 critiques of the trichotomy

Answer 7

1. Problematic ‘presentism’: Gilpin selected only ideas that dominant + influential during 70s
2. Reproduces IR’s ills: Eurocentrism of IR theory (lacked representation in theory), and IR’s foundations in scholars’ attempts to maintain imperialist hierarchy
3. Highly reductionist: ignores nuances + interpretations, how ideas changed over time

Question 8

what is the main actor in statism

Answer 8

state

Question 9

explain statism

Answer 9

• Anarchical environment: duty of each state to protect own state
• Policy made to support and maintain power- devising strategies to enhance short term economic bargaining power
• How one state seeks to impose national interest at expense of another (through bargaining- i.e. can be then applied to bargaining situations involving international trade, FDI, cross- border production

Question 10

why did statism emerge

Answer 10

Emerged in the context of the expansion of European empires
• Friedrich LIst
• Overlooks List’s concern with balancing short- and long-term goals in economic planning
o National economy interest shaped by strategies, which are weighed up of long term
planning and short term gain
o Balanced through trade offs
o Employed through some protectionist policies-

Question 11

limitations of statism (3)

Answer 11

• Short term focus (overlooking Lists’ long term),
o how economic planning coordinated and managed over time in accordance to different competing interests within a country

• Narrow focus on states as unit of actor, reductionist

• Methological nationalism- coherent states that stand over societies and act on them
o However states cant be assumed to have single national interest
o Governments have limitation as to the public support over certain policies

Question 12

main actor of liberalism

Answer 12

individuals
- rational utility maximizing actors- through markets individuals maximize gains of society
o Pursuit of self interest through interest
o // removes constraints that don’t allow individuals to maximize interests (reduce state intervention)

Question 13

why did liberalism emerge

Answer 13

as a critique of statist policies in the late 1800s, arguing that goal of self-sufficiency through empire had detrimental effects
• Argues states can cooperate for mutual gain (not entirely self-pleasing purposes)

• War emphasizes these ideas
o Design institutions that facilitate cooperation and remove statist policy
o Bretton woods
o Rolling back of government regulations

Question 14

explain smiths input (and what was ignored) in liberalism theory

Answer 14

• Smith: ‘invisible hand’ = directive for contemporary economic governance
• but Smith not simply arguing for the transfer of authority from the state to the market
o But governments indispensable in running of markets – i.e. outlawing certain market-bound behaviours bc of their antisocial consequences
• Was not against gov but against corruption of gov
• ‘virtue of self command’
o Specialisation of labour has social benefits i.e. dividing production
• Need to act in socially acceptable ways + understand hardhip of others
• Cost- limit mental stimulation repeating task
Limitations

Question 15

limitations of liberalism

Answer 15

• Ahistorical - always been markets but Global market is recent and not considered
• History of Political conflict that shape how markets form and function not considered
• Reductionist approach

Question 16

main actors in critical ipe

Answer 16

Not discrete actors like states or individuals, more focus on class

Question 17

why did critical IPE emerge

Answer 17

as a critique of Smith,
- Argues capitalist system structured around employers being able to extract more economic value out of their employees’ labour than what employers compensate employees for in wages (surplus value extraction)

Question 18

explain what marx thought structure of production creates

Answer 18

production creates two classes: the owners of the means of production, the bourgeoisie (benefit through surplus value extraction), and the workers who sell their labour power to the bourgeoisie - proletariat (suffer through surplus value extraction)

Question 19

limitations of critical IPE

Answer 19

• Neglects forms of social dominations that don’t rise from class structure- gender, racism
• Over emphasise coherence of class dominance: Not fractures within, but focuses on as dominant and clearly articulated interests
• Economic determinism- capital and class= central, obscure role of human agency

Question 20

Explain world systems theory and dependancy theory

Answer 20

• Focus on development of some countries and persistent of poverty in others
o Consequences of early development
o Historical has shaped trajectory of both colonized and poor (exploitive relationships and their relevance of European empire in todays)

Question 21

explain grampian theory

Answer 21

• Relative durability and legitimacy of capitalist system despite clear inequality
o How ideas and values of minority that’s benefiting from system become hegemonic
o Argued political dynamics of state were crucial in reproduction of system
o Class conflict important but capitalist continued to reproduce itself bc of political compromises bw different socialist interest
• Rise of social democracy = class compromise
o Need to redistribute gains for system to continue and become more equitable

Question 22

what is feminist gpe

Answer 22

• GPE deeply implicated in daily life – linking the macro-structural with the micro-personal
o Experiences operate along class, gender and racial line
o Framework explicitly centred on human and social + no ‘economic’ value is socially untied or ‘gender neutral’
o Argues assumed ‘rationality’ and ‘gender neutrality’ of economic discourse is form of male-as-norm androcentricity
• Conventional IPE ‘retain a serious blind spot’ by continuing to focus on abstract entities such as states and firms, and ignores activities and fates of social groups, non-elite actors, and workers

Question 23

example of feminist IPE

Answer 23

Southeast Asia
o Seems a success story of liberal ‘free’ market + impact of FDI
o Ignores gendered underpinnings of their economic growth in which multinationals deliberately construct and legitimizes gendered and racist inequalities (+ then benefit from them)
o Exploiting gendered divisions of labor in order to mobilize a supply of low cost female labor to work as productive operatives
• // not just economic presence but social

Question 24

explain rational choice theory

Answer 24

approached based on assumptions of the utility-maximising behaviour

• Hyper rationalist- given policy type will always be selected because it reflects the generic enactment of self interest
• Trichotomy // pro-market ideology rational choice theory
• Feminist economics= direct opposite to rational choice approach // not easy incorporation into textbook GPE