Liberalism Essay

792 Words2 Pages

Topics related to the growth of NGOs, MNCs, free trade, and the spread of democracy within contemporary international politics are explainable by Liberalism’s core ideologies. Since Liberalism views anarchy as an effect of the players within the system and not a structure of the system, Liberalists believe that it can be eliminate through cooperation between players. Furthermore, Liberalists provide three ways to accomplish systematic harmony to include free trade within the economic system, player cooperation, to achieve various goals to include social topics by not limiting those who can affect and influence the system, and the development of organizations to supervise the actions of the international system and the interactions between states (Baylis et all 2011, 102-106, 252-253).
Understanding the difference in how the system is viewed between Liberalism and Structural Realism allows each theory to discuss different subjects within international topics, however from the end of the Cold War to the attacks on 9/11, Liberalists felt that their theory was dominant over Structural Realism. The time showed the growth of various players, the spread and advocacy of democracy, which eliminates potential threats to and from other democratic actors all working within a free market economic system (Walt 1998). Liberalism still feels that it is relevant in international politics today although it does face some challenges. It does not take into account the continued conflict between the stronger players as they continue to reach for more economic and technological power to gain influence over one another, or why transitional democratic players enter into internal conflict, limiting their role in the international system. While Str...

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Constructivism makes some strong claims for explaining the international system and the agents it envelops. It is a social theory that relies heavily on reflexivity as the structure for change to occur between the agent-structure system (Drulak 2001, 366-373). While Constructivism may provide insight on the causal reason for why change or action occurred within the system, it does not provide the ability to explain and predict the enduring consistencies within international politics (Baylis et all 2011, 164). As with Structural Realism, Constructivism also struggles with a system with differentiated units, as it describes the influence of change between individuals, agents, and the system continuously influencing one another but the agents within the system remain undifferentiated amongst on another (Drulak 2001, 375-376).

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