Constructivist Approaches to International Politics

Lec 6: Constructivist Approaches

The Discipline of Political Science
Rationalism
Constructivism
Rationalism & Constructivism Compared
“Anarchy

Lec 6: Constructivist Approaches

The Discipline of Political Science
Rationalism
Constructivism
Rationalism & Constructivism Compared
“Anarchy

Before we grapple with the “constructivist” approach to IP, it is

Different disciplines define and organize themselves in different ways.

Historians define themselves as those who adhere to a particular methodology:

As chroniclers, they may simply hope to document the progression of

Within the discipline, they arrange themselves based on distinctions of geographic

Historians are meant to be competent to discuss all the big

Economists define themselves according to a specific approach—a specific framework and

In general, economists attempt to explain how individuals maximize their preferences

As Barry Eichengreen (an economist) put it…

Economists utilize their same “kit

The discipline of political science, by contrast, is defined rather differently

Political science is a discipline defined by its substantive concern—politics—rather than

To be a political scientist, one must study any of the

In terms of approach, however, political science is quite pluralistic.

These substantive issues of politics are studied in any number of

Thus, there is no distinctive “political scientific” approach.

And political scientists generally

A critic would say that this makes political science schizophrenic and

This way political scientists get a range of perspectives on a

Constructivism, in fact, was the product of this kind of intellectual

The Discipline of Political Science
Rationalism
Constructivism
Rationalism & Constructivism Compared
“Anarchy is what states

While Waltz, Mearsheimer, Keohane, Axelrod, Russett, et al, come to different

They all assume:

Autonomous actors (states, policymakers) possess exogenously determined interests.
These actors

These theorists all think about states in the international system in

They all employ (often explicitly) the economists’ “rational choice” approach.
Thus, they

These rationalists explain how actors maximize their goals given various constraints.
But

The Discipline of Political Science
Rationalism
Constructivism
Rationalism & Constructivism Compared
“Anarchy is what states

Constructivists utilize a different approach and pursue different questions.

Constructivists want to ask: how are these actors’ all-important preferences formed

These constructivists want to endogenize several of the elements that rationalists

Or, as Katzenstein and Wendt put it…

“[T]his book makes problematic the state interests that predominant explanations of

How, then, do constructivists study and understand where identities and interests

While economists may best explain how actors maximize their preferences, sociologists

Constructivists understand identities and interests to be the product of process

“It is through reciprocal interaction, in other words, that we create

The Discipline of Political Science
Rationalism
Constructivism
Rationalism & Constructivism Compared
“Anarchy is what states

According to constructivists, constructivism is not a theory or a “school”

Constructivists also see “rationalism” as an approach rather than as an

But the two approaches differ significantly along several dimensions…

THE RATIONALIST APPROACH

The Rationalist Ontology
The Rationalist Epistemology
Some Differences

The Rationalist Ontology

States’ Interests

International Environment

Strategies for Maximizing Interests

Interstate Interactions

The Building Blocks

The

The Rationalist Ontology

States’ Interests

International Environment

Strategies for Maximizing Interests

Interstate Interactions

The Building Blocks

The

The Rationalist Epistemology

States are assumed to enjoy (bounded) rationality
States attempt to

Here is where some of these rationalist theories differ from one

Some Differences between Rationalists

States’ Interests

Interstate Interactions

The Building Blocks

The Outcome

Jervis: O/D Balance

Keohane:

THE CONSTRUCTIVIST APPROACH

The Constructivist Ontology
The Constructivist Epistemology
Some Differences

The Constructivist Ontology

States’ Interests

International Environment

Interstate Interactions

The Products of Process

The Determinative Process

Strategies

The Constructivist Ontology

States’ Interests

International Environment

Interstate Interactions

The Products of Process

The Determinative Process

Here,

The Constructivist Epistemology

Structure (interests, environment, and strategies) cannot be understood apart

How do the constructivists differ between one another?

Constructivists may see process doing more or less work in shaping

Constructivism “Lite”

States’ Interests

International Environment

Strategies for Maximizing Interests

Interstate Interactions

Constructivism attempts to explain

Constructivism “Heavy”

States’ Interests

International Environment

Interstate Interactions

Strategies for Maximizing Interests

Wendt: Interaction influences all

This can be used to organize IP theories along yet another

Approach to IP

Rationalism: Structure Independent of Process

Constructivism: Structure Dependent on Process

Constructivism

The key issue: to what extent does structure depend on process?

States’

The Discipline of Political Science
Rationalism
Constructivism
Rationalism & Constructivism Compared
“Anarchy is what states

Alexander Wendt wants to do more than simply address the questions

Nowhere is this more apparent than in his suggestion that “anarchy

Rationalists say that, without me and my sword, there would be

Well, actually, Mr. Leviathan, Mr. Hobbes, that’s precisely where I want

Wendt contends that the structure of the international system alone is

“I argue that self-help and power politics do not follow either

Here’s an example…

In the late 1980s, Mikhail Gorbachev deliberately reshaped the rhetoric that

As Wendt would argue, structural features like the distribution of power

Wendt proposes that actors might “construct” several different “logics” of anarchy: