week 3: realism, liberalism, and constructivism Flashcards
What is ontology?
Theory and study of being or the nature of reality/the world/what exists.
The units that make up our political reality (e.g., states, something else?); causal dynamics.
What is epistemology?
Theory and study of knowledge. What kind of knowledge is ‘valid’ or ‘true’? Informed by ontology - they shape one another
Questioning how we acquire it (e.g. through observation).
Informs our methodology or research strategy/design.
What is positivism?
Measuring what can be observed, aiming for generalizable theories and laws.
What is relativism (post-positivism?):
Argues that values cannot be separated from observation. We cannot have a generalizable theory because things are context-specific. What we observe cannot be separated from the values we have in our own context.
What is the purpose of theory? What are the 2 types?
The purpose of theory is to understand why we have a theoretical approach.
- Problem-solving theory: taking the world as is
- Critical theory: Taking the world not as it is but how it could be or should be - critiquing assumptions
Describe (neo)realism in terms of:
- Context
- Ontology
- Epistemology
- Purpose
- Realism & GEP
- post WWII - there is no global government that controls how states behave
- Logic of anarchy, state-centric
- rational, self-interested states
- maximizing security, cost-benefit calculations
- global politics determined by hegemonic states - Positivist
- Problem-solving
- trying to explain war and conflicts between different states or how to enable cooperation between the different states (hegemonic stability thesis). - mostly MIA
What is the neo-neo debate?
Little faith in international institutions or regimes for cooperation
Realists don’t have faith in institutions
Describe liberalism and neoliberalism in terms of:
- Context
- Ontology
- Epistemology
- Purpose
- Rationalism & GEP
- post cold-war era, influenced by what happened in the economy
- State-centric (self-interested)
- Individual rights, limited state, free markets - Positivist
- Problem-solving
- Functionalism (economic co-op.)
- Economic interdependence - mostly MIA
- environment problems as a market failure
Describe rationalism (liberal institutionalism) in terms of:
- Context
- Ontology
- Epistemology
- Purpose
- Realism & GEP
- International law, US hegemony
- State-centric but faith in rules, norms & institutions to shape behavior and help cooperation
- Positivist
- Problem-solving - enable effective cooperation
- Regime effectiveness, compliance
- thinking about how we create successful regimes in shaping and constraining state behavior and how we get compliance for the states to do what they say they would do (like the Paris Agreement)
- origins of earth system governance
Describe social constructivism in terms of:
- Context
- Ontology
- Epistemology
- Purpose
- Realism & GEP
- 1990s/end of Cold War, alt. to neo-neo debate
- Mostly rejects rationalism
- Social world is constructed, ideas matter!
- Power and institutions are not primary variables - Reflectivist (knowledge is socially constructed) → post positivism theory!
- Problem-solving or critical theory depends on the type of constructivist you are looking at
- Liberal environmentalism or normative fit in liberal order e.g., carbon markets
What is Earth System Governance?
A paradigm shift in GEP; note paradigm - broader than a theoretical ‘lens’ or ‘perspective’
Understand politics and governance (the “collective steering of societal behavior by political actors”) in terms of socio-ecological system change at planetary scale
Focus on planetary (human, non-human) interdependence
Describe Earth System Governance in terms of:
- Context
- Ontology
- Epistemology
- Purpose
- Realism & GEP
- Emergence of Anthropocene, shortcomings of GEP
- De-centers the state, interdependent system(s) with human and non-human agency on all scales (nonhierarchical)
- More reflectivist than positivist; complexity thinking; interdisciplinary
- Mix of both problem-solving (explaining what is) and critical/normative (what ought to be); questions of justice
- Explaining what is but also looking at what we ought to do and how to transform our systems - not explaining things how they are but looking at how things could look like
- questions of justice
Describe liberal institutinalists in terms of:
- Context
- Ontology
- Epistemology
- Purpose
- Realism & GEP
- international law, waning US hegemony 1971
- state-centric but faith in rules, norms & institutions to shape behavior - can facilitate cooperation
- positivist
- problem-solving - Enable effective cooperation within our existing world
- Regime effectiveness, compliance. Origins of Earth System Governance.
