Liberalism_lecture_presentation.ppt

LIBERALISM (PLURALISM)
 From a liberal perspective, international relations
is not only about state-state relations; it is about
transnational relations that means relations
between people, groups and organizations from
different countries
 Due to this emphasis on society, state and many
different actors, liberalism is also called pluralism
Liberalism and Globalization | Shahid Hussain Soomro 1

BASIC CONCEPTS AND ISSUES IN
LIBERALTHEORY:
 Liberals focus on norms, regimes, economic
interdependence, international organisations
 no distinction between
 ‘high’ politics (high-level relations between states) and
 ‘low’ politics (internal socio-economic issues)
 İssues of terrorism, drug trafficking, human rights,
environment, technology and finance are as
important as security issues

EVOLUTION OF LIBERALISM
- Enlightenment period liberalism (liberal universalism)
- Idealism that emerged after First World War
- Institutional Liberalism

LIBERALISM: KEY ASSUMPTIONS
 Robert Keohane and Joseph Nye, “Power and Interdependence:
World Politics inTransition” (1977)
 States are not the only important actors in world politics. Non-state
actors are important entities in IR that cannot be ignored.
 International Organizations (IOs) can be independent actors in their
own right.
 The organization’s own decision makers, bureaucrats have
considerable influence in agenda setting, namely determining which
issues are most important politically.
 IOs are more than simply arenas within which sovereign states
compete.
 Moreover, MultinationalCorporations like General Motors,
DaimlerChrysler,Toyota Motor, Ford Motor or Phillips cannot be
ignored as well in a highly interdependent world economy.

SECOND ASSUMPTION OF
LIBERALISM
 For liberals, the state is not a unitary actor. State is
composed of individual bureaucracies, interest groups, and
individuals that attempt to influence foreign policy. There
may be competition, coalition, conflict, compromise
among these actors.
 To speak of a foreign policy of Turkey, US or UK means
that foreign policy decisions were determined by
competition among a number of actors. Foreign policy
preferences reflect the multiple actors within the state.
Liberals break the state into various components, they reject
the notion of the state as an integrated entity.

SECOND ASSUMPTION OF
LIBERALISM
 Domestic actors influence how states define their foreign
policy interests
 Societal actors compete with each other for access to and
influence upon decision-makers
 National decision-makers are responsive to interest group
lobbying
 Both governmental and non governmental actors may take
actions that are contrary to the preferences of central state
authorities. For liberals such an interaction not only
happens within the state but across national borders, so it
has a transnational dimension.

THIRD ASSUMPTION OF
LIBERALISM
 States may not be rational actors: A particular
policy may be suggested just because it serves
bureaucratic power or prestige of certain groups.
 Moreover, misperception of decision makers as a
result of incomplete information, bias, and
uncertainty is also a key focus of attention for
liberal scholars.

FOURTH ASSUMPTION OF
LIBERALISM
 They reject the idea that the agenda of
international politics is dominated primarily by
military-security issues.
 For them the agenda of international politics is
extensive and diversified and economic and social
issues are often at the forefront of foreign policy
debates.
 The problems of energy, natural resources,
environment, pollution are as important as
questions of security and territorial competition.

FIFTH ASSUMPTION OF
LIBERALISM
 There are important linkages between domestic
structures and processes and international politics
 The international system is not completely
anarchic. Some domains of international relations
are characterized by “international regimes”. So,
cooperation between states can be achieved.

BASIC LIBERALVALUES
 Liberals focus on values of order, liberty, justice, and
toleration into international relations. All individuals are
juridically equal and posses basic rights to education,
access to a free press, and religious toleration.Domestic
and international institutions are required to protect these
values.
 State posseses only the authority given to it by the people
 All individuals have the right to own property
 Most effective economic exchange system is market
economy. Economy should not be subordinated to
bureaucratic control

PEACEFULWORLD ORDER
 Rational individual, Republican/democratic state, commercial
interdependence, universal rights, international law,
international institutions peaceful world order

HISTORICAL OVERVIEW
 Liberal perspective is based on the ideas
developed during the Enligtenment period.
 The development of the idea of Republican state
and free trade led to the emergence of liberal
perspective in IR.
 Cosmopolitan morality could be achieved through
the exercise of reason and through the creation of
democratic states.

LIBERAL UNIVERSALISM OFTHE
ENLIGTENMENT PERIOD
 The focus is on how the cooperation among
Republican states, free trade and mutual
interdependence lead to perpetual peace and
international harmony
 Focus on the individual, rationality, progressive
history and positivist science
 Bourgeoisie emerged as a new class and
supported the ideas of the Enligtenment such as
the autonomy of the individual, equality,
tolerance, freedom and property

REORGANIZING DOMESTIC
POLITICS
 Liberals opposed to the monarchies, conquest of new territories,
balance of power, formation of alliances, secret diplomacy, and
imperialism .
 Establishment of Republican states instead of monarchies
 Rational individual and rational morality: each person belives that he
has to work hard for creating himself a better future.This benefits
whole society.He is aware of his moral responsbilities and duties, this
creates a harmonious society. Individuals focus on pursuing their own
interest, but this does not create conflict. Rationality puts freedom and
justice to the heart of international relations.
 It is believed that states that treat their citizens morally and enable
them to participate to the political process do not behave agressively.

FOCUS ONTHE INDIVIDUAL
 John Locke (1632-1704) emphasizes that all
individuals have rights such as freedom, equality,
property, and right for living. A state is responsible
for protecting these rights.
 Immanuel Kant (1724-1804) in his work “Perpetual
Peace”: A peace federation based on the rational
individual and Republican government can be
created.

IMMANUEL KANT AND
PERPETUAL PEACE
 Peace can be achieved through 3 steps:
1. Human rationality: rational individuals having moral values create
peaceful society thus a peaceful world.
2. Constitution Based Republican state: as all individuals are rational,
they know that they will bear the costs of a war. In a republican
state they can prevent their leaders from going to war.The rule of
law, seperation of legislation, executive, and judiciary.Respecting
each other’s rights and freedom
3. Spreading human rationality, free trade and republicanism
worldwide: perpetual peace

THE IMPORTANCE OF FREETRADE
 Free trade brings people from different race,
religion and language together.
 Protectionist economic policies lead to insecurity
and also low level of interaction among states
 Borders that seperate states should be
transcended and common values should be
created. Free trade is essential in creating these
common values
 It is believed that market societies are against
war.

THE IMPORTANCE OF FREETRADE
 For creating wealth for the world, there should be increase
in production.This will satisfy human needs and prevent
evil intentions of individuals.
 International distribution of wealth can be equal if
individuals freely pursue their interests all around the
world.
 The increase in production and equal distribution of wealth
depend on a free international trade.
 If all states try to maximize their economic interests,
then whole world will benefit from it.Global wealth will
lead to global peace.

IDEALISM
 Unlike the classical liberalism which argues that if individuals
pursue their self-interests, societal harmony will be achieved,
idealism argues that state intervention is necessary for creating
societal harmony.
 States must be part of an international organization and be subject
to its rules and norms.
 Idealism has an active and regulatory character. It suggests that
wars like first world war should not be experienced again. So,
idealism suggests that international peace should be achieved
through cooperation between democratic states and the
commonsense of the people.
 The League of Nations was founded in 1920 to maintain peace
and stability, but its collective security system failed to solve the
economic and political crises of the 1930s.

WOODROWWILSON’S PRINCIPLES
 Establishment of an international organization
 The right to determine each nation’s own destinty
 Mutual respect for each state’s independence
 Resolution of problems through diplomacy
 Removal of customs tariffs and strengthening
mutual trade between states
 Spreading economic liberalization

HOWTO AVOIDWAR?
 The spread of economic relations between states makes
war costly. Because states have common interests due to
mutual economic interdependence. In order not to lose
their interests, states avoid from war.
 Establishment of democratic states.
 Democracy should be preferred instead of monarchy, free
trade instead of protectionism, common security instead
of balance of power
 Focus on individual rights and economic welfare avoids
war. Rational individuals create harmonious societies
which in turn create international peace.

LIBERALTHEORY AFTERTHE
SECOND WORLD WAR
 In the post-1945 period, liberals turned to international
institutions to carry out a number of functions the state could
not perform.

KARL DEUTSCH AND HIS
SECURITY COMMUNITY
 Karl Deutsch (1912-1992) was a leading figure in
the study of transnational relations in the 1950s.
 He argues that a high degree of transnational ties
between societies leads to peaceful relations. By
this way security community can be created. He
argues that security community could be created
among Western countries through NATO.

DAVID MITRANY AND
FUNCTIONALISTTHEORY OF
INTEGRATION
 David Mitrany (1888-1975) argued that greater
transnational interdependence between countries can lead
to peace.
 He argued that cooperation should be arranged by
technical experts, not by politicians. The experts can find
better solutions to common problems in areas such as
communication, finance, transport...
 When people realize that they benefit from cooperation,
the cooperation that starts in functional areas can expand
to other areas. Economic interdependence can lead to
political integration and peace.

RISE OF LIBERAL PERSPECTIVE
(PLURALISM)
 By the early 1970s, liberalism (pluralism) had mounted a significant challenge
to realism. It focused on new actors (multinational corporations, non
governmental organizations) and new patterns of interaction
(interdependence, integration).Key factors included:
 The decline of US economic hegemony.
 The rise in the number and influence of nonstate actors.
 the emergence of MNCs
 Increased levels of international cooperation in economics, cultural affairs and
science.
 emergence of the European supranationalism
 The evolution of communication and transportation technologies increased
the level of interdependence between states.Thus, transnational actors are
important, and welfare is becoming more important than security for states.
That means a world of more cooperative international relations.

COMPLEX INTERDEPENDENCE AND
TRANSNATIONALISM:
 Keohane and Nye, Power and Interdependence (1977): the world had
become more pluralistic in terms of actors involved and these actors
became more dependent on each other.
 4 basic characteristic of this pluralistic world:
 - increasaing linkages between states and non-state actors
 - no distinction between high and low politics: Mutual interests extend
beyond trade and development issues. Due to the globalization of security
concerns like terrorism, drug trufficking and diseas likeAIDS, any country’s
security cannot be addressed unilaterally.
 - multiple channels for integration among actors across national
boundaries
 - decline of the importance of military force. Force will not be of primary
importance
 Broad view of power and its sources: economic, social etc.

THE ROLE OF INTERDEPENDENCE
 Throughout history states sought power by means of
military force and territorial expansion, but for
industrialized countries economic development and
foreign trade are more important and less costly for
achieving prosperity
 Industrialized counties like Japan andGermany refrained
from high military expenditure and economic self
sufficiency, instead they focused on trade and increased
interdependence
 Liberals argue that high division of labor in international
economy increases interdependence between states and
reduces conflicts between states

JAMES N. ROSENAU AND
TRANSNATIONAL RELATIONS
 Rosenau argues that individual transactions have
important implications for global affairs.Due to better
education and access to means of communication, foreign
travel, migration individuals extended their activities
 For him, state’s capacity for control and regulation is
decreasing in a complex world. (environmental pollution,
drug trade, currency crises, and terrorism)
 He sees a fundamental transformation in the international
system: state-centric, anarchic system has not
disappeared, but a new multi-centric world has emerged.

‘LIBERAL INSTITUTIONALISM’:
 Institutions are enduring sets of norms, rules and expected
patterns of behaviour
 Gains from institutions:
 facilitate activities that are beneficial to states (e.g.
trade)
 reduce states’s fear of each other
 provide a flow of information and opportunities to
negotiate between states, facilitate the risks of tricky
negotiations (e.g. over arms control)
 enhance the ability of governments to monitor others’
compliance and implementing their commitments, thus
the ability to make commitments credible

DEMOCRATIC PEACETHEORY
Bruce Russet and Michael Doyle reject that war is caused by bad people (human
nature) or the absence of a central authority (anarchy). For them, regime-type is
important. Democracies do not fight each other.
 Following Immanuel Kant, Michael Doyle highlights that citizens in general will
oppose wars because:
- the existence of domestic political cultures based on peaceful conflict resolution
- democratic governments are controlled by their citizens, who will oppose war
because they do not want to bear the costs of wars. Governments, being rational
actors, avoid starting wars in order to maximise their chances of success on election
day
• Germany’s opposition to the war in Iraq might be explained in terms of Chancellor
Schroder’s opportunistic reading of domestic public opinion. The stance of
Germany public opinion is consistent with the belief that citizens are generally
war-averse.

DEMOCRATIC PEACETHEORY
- democracies hold common moral values which
create a pacific union. Peaceful way of solving
conflicts are seen as morally superior to violent
behavior, and this attitude is transferred to
international relations.
- freedom of expression and free communication
promote mutual understanding internationally and
help to ensure that political leaders will act in
accordance with their citizens’s views
- mutual gain from economic cooperation and
interdependence also contribute to peace

CHALLENGESTO LIBERAL
PERSPECTIVE (PLURALISM)
 Neorealists criticize liberals for exaggerating the role of
institutions. Neo-realists argue that states cooperate
through institutions but they do it for their own interest,
and the strong prevail in international relations.
Institutions are subject to states
 Neorealist also challenge liberal argument that democratic
states do not fight each other. Neorealists argue that
today’s friend can turn out to be tomorrow’s enemy,
whether they are a democracy or not. For neorealists, as
long as there is anarchy, there is no escape from self-help
and security dilemma.

WALTZ’S RESPONSETO
PLURALISM
 Serious challenge from realism came in 1979 with
Kenneth Waltz’s “Theory of International Politics”
 International system is still anarchical, nothing
had changed with the advent of interdependence.
In domestic affairs, there is authority,
administration and law, while international politics
is characterized by power struggle.

CRITIQUE FROM MARXIST
SCHOLARS
 Marxist scholars criticize liberals for modelling a
rich man’s world
 ‘interdependence’ limited to the developedWest
 in the rest of the world, ‘dependence’ of one group of countries upon
another reflected global imbalances in wealth and power

NEOLIBERAL
(INSTITUTIONALISM)
 Pluralists of 1970s  ‘neo-liberal institutionalists’ in the
1980-90s
 They try to explain durability of institutions despite change
in the distribution of power in the international system
 Approximated neo-realism by accepting two of its
fundamental principles:
 the anarchic structure of the international system
 States are rational actors
 But kept a ‘liberal’ focus : the possibilities for inter-state
cooperation under anarchy

INTELLECTUAL ORIGINS
 Neoliberalism must be distinguished from liberalism.
 Neoliberalism is only concerned with ‘economic’ freedom – it is agnostic on issues of social justice,
democracy and equality
 The individual is solely responsible for the consequences of their own choices
 State intervention eventually will lead to totalitarianism
 Individuals are perfectly rational and have better information than the state as to their own needs
 Appropriate role for the state is seen as that of a night watchman – courts, police and military are
justified expenditure to the extent that they enforce individual and commercial liberty
 The institutional framework or ‘rules of the game’ should support private property rights and the
proper functioning of markets - state intervention should be restricted to the bare minimum – a
laissez faire approachg
 Friedrich Hayek:
 ‘Freedom to choose’
 Milton Friedman:
 ‘free markets (and free trade) are the optimal way to organise an exchange of goods and services’ –
‘states don’t have enough information’

NEOLIBERAL AGENDA
 Supremacy of the individual and commercial interests over that of
society
 Thatcher ‘ no such thing as society’
 Neoliberal agenda:
 Free trade
 Privatisation
 Shrinking of the state
 Large tax cuts
 Balanced budgets or ‘austerity’ (because state intervention always fails)
 Neoliberalism is consistent with autocratic regimes and with
democratic regimes
 Its about ‘economic’ freedom not ‘egalitarian’ or ‘participative’ freedom
 Neoliberalism has never been the dominant school amongst academic
economists – it is fundamentally a political and ideological project

POLITICAL REVOLUTION
 Keynesian ‘stagflation’ of the 1970s and the end of the golden era of
capitalism (1945-1973)
 Rise of the monetarists in the 1980s and 1990s – Pinochet,Thatcher,
Reagan,Clinton
 Scepticism of democracy where it threatens individual or commercial
liberty
 IMF andWorld Bank enforce neoliberal policies on developing
economies from the 1970s onwards (mainly in LatinAmerica and
Africa)
 TheWashington Consensus involved fiscal consolidation, privatisation,
openness to capital flows, reduction of trade barriers, deregulation
 Technocratic rule
 However, East Asian countries continue to pursue more
developmentalist models and outperform other developing economies

COSTS OF NEOLIBERALISM
 International capital flows generate economic instability
 Latin America (1980s), East Asia (1990s), Global financial crash (2008) etc etc
 Deregulation, attacks on trade unions, tax cuts, privatisation and smaller
states are all linked to rising inequality
 Incomes have grown fastest at the top since the early 1980s in those countries
that have embraced the neoliberal policy suite
 Relative income stagnation at the bottom half of the distribution
 Rising inequality has generated a backlash against globalisation and a rise in nationalism
(alienation of the rust belts)
 Inequality undermines democracy itself as ‘winners’ rig the system in their favour
via their disproportionate influence on and lobbying of policymakers
 The neoliberal model (i.e. minimal regulation, profit seeking to the
exclusion of all else) has intensified climate chaos
 Neoliberals often deny the existence of climate change because it would imply a need
for regulation – and an attack on individual freedom

POST-2008: A CONTESTED SPACE
 The neoliberal agenda was dominant from 1979 to 2008
 The financial crash fundamentally discredited the policies of
deregulation and unfettered capital flows
 Austerity is blamed for the prolongation of the Euro crisis, while
austerity and globalisation are both credited with fuelling inequality and
the rise of far right parties around the world
 The IMF and OECD have gradually moved away from neoliberal
policies over the last decade
 At any rate, neoliberal policies have always been highly contested in
Europe and in Asia. Many European countries spend in excess of 40%
of their GDP on public spending
 The covid-19 crisis has shown that private markets are fundamentally
dependent on the State

CORE ASSUMPTIONS OF NEO-
LIBERAL INSTITUTIONALISM
 States are key actors, but not the only significant actors.
States are rational, always seeking to maximize their
interests in all issue-areas.
 In a competitive environment, states seek to maximize
absolute gains through cooperation. As rational actors,
states prefer cooperation.They are not concerned with the
relative gains of others.
 The greatest obstacle to cooperation is non-compliance
and cheating by states.
 If institutions are seen mutually beneficial by states, then
they will shift their loyalties to these institutions.

MUTUAL INTERESTS
 Neo-liberal institutional perspective is more
relevant in issue areas where states have mutual
interests like trade. Most states believe that all
states will benefit from an open trade system.
However, cooperation in military or national
security areas, where someone’s gain is perceived
as someone else’s loss (zero-sum perspective) may
be more difficult to achieve.

INNOVATIONS OF
NEOLIBERALISM:
 Cooperation in the context of anarchy will be fragile:
 ‘free-rider’ states (those that share benefits of cooperation without
contributing to its costs) undermine the legitimacy of cooperation
for those who do meet the costs
 Focus on international institutions

NEO-LIBERAL
INSTITUTIONALISTS
 Neoliberalism explains the durability of institutions despite significant
changes in the international system.
 Institutions exert a causal force on international relations, shaping state
preferences and locking them into cooperative arrangements.
 Neo-liberal institutionalists see institutions as the mediator and the
means to achieve cooperation in the international system. Regimes
and institutions govern a competitive and anarchic international
system and they encourage multilateralism and cooperation for
securing national interests.
 They focus on the creation and maintenance of institutions associated
with managing the globalization process.

INTERNATIONAL REGIME
 If states are bad, create “regimes”: A set of formal and informal rules, or norms that
constrain the behavior of units in the international system and regulate their
relations
 Regimes help to facilitate cooperation.
 Behavior is limited by the norms and rules of the regime.
 Regimes increase the stability and predictability of behaviour of states under
anarchy
 Regimes consist of:
 1. Principles
 2. Norms
 3. Rules and decision-making procedures
 Example:WTO

THE ROLE OF INTERNATIONAL
INSTITUTIONS AND REGIMES
 Institutions and regimes:
 facilitate transparency
 reduce transaction costs and the likelihood of cheating (free-riding)
 States will create rules and abide by them, and maintain
them even if that may become costly
 Institutions and regimes serve to create new forms of
commonality through the experience of cooperation
 This changes participants’ perceptions of themselves and
their interests

HEGEMONIC STABILITYTHEORY
 A hegemonic power is a key in establishing most of the
existing regimes (especially in International Political
Economy):
 a ‘hegemon’ is a state that has willingness and the ability
to establish rules of action in the international sphere and
enforce them
 The US has acted as a hegemon after the SecondWorldWar
 By 1980s, its hegemonic power has declined
 Can cooperation continue after hegemony? From a liberal
perspective, cooperation can continue even in the absence
of a hegemon.

THE US HEGEMONY AFTERTHE
SECOND WORLD WAR
 John Ikenberry:The US put certain liberal principles into the regulatory
rules and institutions of international society. Contrary to realist thinking,
the US forsake short-run gains in return for a durable settlement that
benefited all states.
 The US advocated a global free trade regime as they belived that free
trade brings benefits to all participants.
 The US created important international institutions that constrained its
actions. Ex: Bretton Woods Institutions (IMF, World Bank,WTO) for
regulating economic order and NATO for ensuring security alliance.
 Advocates of this liberal hegemonic order note that it was so successful
that allies were more worried about the abondenment of the US than its
domination.
 In terms of American hegemony, in the absence of a major war or global
economic collapse, the existing order prevails.
 The post-1945 international order has been successful and durable
because US hegemony has a liberal character.

NEO-REALIST AND NEO-LIBERALIST
DEBATE: ‘NEO-NEO SYNTHESIS’
 Both agree that international system is anarchic. But
neoliberal institutions emphasize that the role of anarchy
can be mitigated through international institutions and
regimes
 Neorealists argue that international cooperation is hard to
achive, difficult to maintain, and dependent on state
power. Neo-liberals believe that cooperation is easy to
achieve where states have mutual interest
 Neo-liberals think that actors with common interests try to
maximize absolute gains.They ignore relative gains. But
neorealists argue that states are concerned about relative
gains as they do not want others to gain more.

GAINS FROM COOPERATION:
 relative vs. absolute gains
 Neoliberals emphasise absolute gains
 as long as a state is getting rewards from cooperation it
does not matter if a neighbouring state is doing better
 Liberal trade theory:
 parties’ comparative advantage from trade may be
different;
 importantly, they all still gain something

GAINS FROM COOPERATION:
 Neorealists focus on relative gains:
 assume that states will be interested not only in how well they are
doing but also how well others are doing
 This stems from the focus on the balance of power
 States gauge their action based on the relative distribution of power
in the international system
 any changes in relative wealth and power will affect state behaviour
and, consequently, the dynamics of cooperation.
 The question for realists is how to get cooperation going:
 states would only be prepared to meet the costs of cooperation if
every one of them can reasonably expect to gain more than any
other participating state

‘NEO-NEO SYNTHESIS’
 a rapprochement between neo-realism and neo-liberalism
 ‘neo-neo synthesis’
 A significant influence of realism, but also an input from
liberal institutionalism:
 Ex: Barry Buzan’s concept of ‘mature anarchy’: in parts of the
international system, anarchy is qualitatively different from how it is
envisaged in the pessimistic classical realist view
 this difference has come about as a result of institutionalised
cooperation practices that changed states’ expectations and
perceptions of what is acceptable in international relations

THE DIFFERENCES OF NEOREALISM
AND NEOLIBERALISM
 Neo-realists argue that anarchy makes states focus on
relative power, security, and survival in a competitive
international system. Neo-liberals are more concerned
with economic welfare and non-military issues like
international environment issues.
 Neo-liberals see institutions and regimes as important
forces in international relations.They claim that
institutions and regimes facilitate cooperation. Neo-
realists argue that neo-liberalists exaggerate the impacts
of institutions and regimes on states. International
institutions and regimes cannot mitigate the constraining
effect of anarchy on cooperation

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