Liberalism and Neo-liberalism

• In political theory, Darwin’s ideas were used to back two different lines of
argument, one essentially realist in its emphasis on the natural human
propensity for violence and conflict, and the other more liberal in
highlighting the human capacity for cooperation as well as competition. He
placed at least as much emphasis on human sociability and intelligence, as
well as the capacity for education and culture, to moderate behaviour

• Key Ideas
• ideas of natural law, freedom, tolerance, individualism, rule of
law, and democracy, and their implications for the international
sphere, to important elements of political economy, all of which
have shaped the world
The Origins of Liberal Thought
• Originating in the seventeenth century following the collapse of feudalism and the emergence
of capitalism in Western Europe. Liberal ideas were initially articulated by Protestants who
challenged both secular and religious authorities in the name of individual rights, claiming that
‘ordinary people were competent to judge the affairs of government as well as to choose their
own path to salvation
• Against a background of Enlightenment thought and the challenges posed by the development
of scientific thinking for traditional explanations of the world around us, as well as revolutions
in France and America, liberal ideas made significant advances
• the Thirty Years’ War, which was to have a significant impact on liberal ideas
• The British philosopher John Locke (1632–1704) is regarded as the founding figure of classical
liberalism
• Locke endorsed the idea of the social contract as a logical step towards creating a more
ordered social and political life and that natural law gives rise to natural rights
• Locke’s social contract: ‘The state of nature has a law of nature to govern it, which obliges
every one: and reason, which is that law, teaches all mankind … that being all equal and
independent, no one ought to harm another in his life, health, liberty, or possessions’
• these rights are given by nature to each and every individual human, they are also held to be
inalienable and universal, holding good for all times and in all places
• the American Declaration of Independence is deeply influenced by his ideas
Liberalism
• Liberalism is strongly rooted in western political thought: Continuation in the long line
of liberal political thought with its prominent enlightenment contributors like David
Hume, J. J. Rousseau, J. S. Mill, Immanuel Kant, John Locke, Thomas Jefferson, Adam
Smith and modern advocates like Alfred Zimmerman and Woodrow Wilson,
• Liberalism is a rich tradition to study politics and international relations.
• Liberalism is often associated with strong commitments to individual liberties; at other
times, liberalism is presented as a doctrine cherishing free markets with minimum state-
intervention in economic sphere as opposed to feudalism and mercantilism.
• Liberalism has five main features:
• 1) strong belief on human reason as opposed to theological authority, human-nature
based restriction and bounded rationality. Belief on human capacity to mold the negative
ramifications of the absence of a world government;
• Human nature includes a ‘good’ or altruistic drive and makes people capable of
compassion and collaboration through reason and ethically inspired education. Advocate
power of ideas through education to arouse world public opinion against warfare.
• Sinful or wicked human behavior, such as violence, is the product of not just of flawed
people but of evil institutions that encourage people to act selfishly and to harm others.
• 2) Strong belief on the idea of progress: Progress is both possible and
desirable in international relations as no one wants to live in a state of
perpetual conflict. The fundamental human concern for others’ welfare
makes progress possible .
• 3) Liberal theorists focus on state-society linkage: there exists close
connection between on the one hand domestic institutions and politics, and
on the other hand international politics.
• Borrowing from German philosopher Immanuel Kant, many liberal theorists
have been convinced that there is a causal link between domestic regime
form/type and the probability of war, as Kant believed that “republican”
states are more peaceful, at least vis-à-vis one another—which ultimately
lead to the development of theory of democratic peace.
 Domestic institutions can be reformed and democratized and in turn,
contribute to an expansion of the international zones of peace.
 States that are democratic and protect civil liberties at home are natural
allies for peace with one another against illiberal state governments prone
to international aggression.
• 4) Increasing economic interdependence among states reduces the likelihood of conflict and war:
during feudal times states were prone to war for wealth and to control economic resources abroad
and markets at home. Conversely, liberals argue that free trade is preferable to mercantilism (state
controlled economy), because free trade produces wealth without war. Furthermore trade and
economic interdependence will make war less likely due to the mutual cost of war. Therefore, as
economic interdependence increases chances of war among states decreases.
• Mercantilism is in fact a form of economic nationalism concerned with how best to accumulate
national wealth rather than just individual or corporate wealth. The accumulation of economic
wealth – achieved primarily through balance-of-trade strategies whereby imports are restrained
while exports expand – is not an end in itself but is directed towards the ultimate end of building
state power, conceived primarily as military capacity. Mercantilism has therefore been seen as the
logical ally of realist IR.
• Mercantilism was also a powerful ally of colonialism, where the latter appropriated the resources
of colonial possessions for the purpose of building up national wealth
• Smith formulated and advocated free trade principles, incorporating assumptions about supply
and demand in a competitive market through which everyone could gain greater wealth
• The promotion of free international trade in place of state’s economic competition. The
replacement of secret diplomacy by a system of ‘open covenants, openly arrived at’ to make
politics free from blackmail, cheat and vicious schemes.
• Reforms must be inspired by a compassionate ethical concern for the welfare and security of all
people, and this humanitarian motive requires the inclusion of morality in statecraft guided by a
primary concern for human rights and civil liberties grounded in human identity.
• 5) International Institutions Matter & Anarchy can be Managed:
Institutionalization of international relations will breed positive outcome.
International institutions could prevent war where states can get the opportunity
to settle their disputes peacefully and without resort to war or balance of power.
• Some emphasize the importance of international agreements (regimes) or
‘negotiated order” which will lead states for compliance on normative grounds.
Still others point to the option of legalizing international politics to regulate the
state behavior and by extension, international anarchy.
• War and international anarchy are not inevitable, and war’s frequency can be
reduced by strengthening the institutional arrangements that encourages its
disappearance.
• War is primarily an international problem requiring collective or multilateral
efforts, rather than independent, national, or unilateral efforts, to control it.
• International institutions are needed to replace the anarchical and war-prone
balance-of-power system, characterized by coalition of independent states formed
to wage war to defend a weaker coalition partner from attack called collective
security system—dealt with the problem of war by declaring any state's
aggression an aggression against all who could act in concert to thwart the
aggressor.
• Liberals emphasize the use of legal processes such as mediation and
arbitration to settle dispute and avoid armed conflict. Likewise, they
advocate arms control and disarmament agreements between states.
• They believed it possible to replace the competitive states with a global
community regulated by institutions for global governance. Liberal idealists
emphasized two principles:
 first [advance freedom by breaking down national barriers], individuals
should be free to interact with one another as they choose, subject to the
proviso that they cannot harm others through force or fraud.
 Second (restraining governments from acting beyond their legitimate
purpose), government’s purpose is to protect freedom and property of its
citizens and provide them public goods.
• All liberal idealists shared moralistic, optimistic, and universalistic image of
international affairs.
• Finally, because human beings are capable of understanding and influencing
their environment, it makes sense to teach international relations. By means
of better understanding world politics, students enhance their capacity to
influence the world of their making.
Neo-Liberalism
• Prominent contributors:
 Stephen Krasner’s edited collection on International Regimes (1983) and
 Robert Keohane’s After Hegemony: Cooperation and Discord in the World Political Economy
(1984)
• Conceded core assumptions of Neo-Realism
• Anarchic International Structure
• Centrality of States
• Rational approach to Social Scientific Enquiry
• Problems of Anarchy can be overcome
• Creating International Regimes that facilitate cooperation
• Defection from norms easier to punish
• Themes in Neo-liberalism:
 Increasing transnationalism,
 Multilateralism and the interdependence of states
 The development of international regimes and
 The role of non-state actors
• Because of this broad focus on a plurality of actors and complex interactions, was sometimes
called ‘pluralism
Main Difference with Neo-Realists & Democratic Peace Liberalists

• Neo-Realists Relative Gains

• Neo-Liberalists Absolute Gains
• Democratic Peace 1) No separation of Liberalists values and facts
2) Free trade brings cooperation
• Neo-Liberalists Difference b/w Cooperation and Harmony

• Krasner shows that int’l regimes operate in a variety of spheres, including security, trade
and finance, and, through the introduction and institutionalization of principles, norms
and rules in these areas, operate to modify greatly the dynamics of anarchy and power
politics. (Critic over realism) but still his work clearly emphasizes interests rather
than values and so differentiates a utilitarian form of liberalism from a moral one. This
also accords with the distinctively positivist style of much neoliberal theorizing
Liberal Institutionalism

• Norman Angell book Human Nature and the Peace Problem (1925), opened with a
critique of the kind of idealism that overlooks the worst aspects of human nature. ‘Man,
after all, is a fighting animal, emotional, passionate, illogical’. But Angell went on to argue
that this is precisely why it is so important that international institutions be created.
• While apparently echoing realist sentiments, the key difference is the liberal belief that
humans are capable of positive progress in political and social spheres, which includes
building cooperative relations in the interests of maintaining peaceful and productive
relations in the international sphere
• Institutions are mediators & means to achieve cooperation
• Institutions manage the process of globalization
• New security concerns (Terrorism, WMD, Internal conflicts) can not be tackled by States
independently
• New Threats require Regional and Global Regimes
 Coalition against terrorism (9/11)
 Cooperative Multilateralism (States & Institutions)
Core Assumptions
• States are not the only significant actors States are rational actors
seeking to maximize interests in all issue areas
• States seek to maximize Absolute gains through cooperation( less
concerned with what other gains)
• Obstacle to successful cooperation is non-compliance or cheating by
States
• States shift loyalty and resources to Institutions if theses are
mutually beneficial
• Critical of preemptive or unilateral use of force
 Against Bush Doctrine of 2002
 Against War in Iraq (Undermine the legitimacy and influence of
global and regional security institutions)
Complex Interdependence

• The world is like multi-layered cake

• Increased linkages among States and Non-State actors
• No distinction between High politics and Low politics
• Multiple channels connect societies: interstate relations (normal channels of
communications assumed by realists); trans-governmental relations (informal ties among
nongovernmental elites) and transnational relations (between multinational banks or
corporations)
• Decline of efficacy of military force as tool of Statecraft
• State is not the only actor in international relations
• It argues that hard power is not the only version rather soft power plays a significant role
in influencing the behaviour of the states
• There is an absence of hierarchy of issues i.e. no difference between high and low politics
• The agenda of interstate relationships consists of multiple issues that are not arranged in a
clear or consistent hierarchy
Liberalism and Globalization

• Two Responses to the problems of Globalization

 Liberalism of Privilege (Preserving and Extending
Liberal Institutionalism)
 Radical Liberalism
• Liberalism of Privilege
 Strong Democratic States in the core of International System
 Robust Regimes
 Open Markets
 Institutions
• Liberal Hegemony of US
 Embedding Liberal principles into International Institutions
 Open political system (domestic & foreign policy)
 Free trade for the benefit of all
 Reluctant hegemony for its allies
 Created and participated in International Institutions, constraining its actions
• Proof of Success
 Allies are worried about abandonment of liberal hegemony than US domination
 System still existing & replacement does not seem imminent
Criticism………
• System not responsive to weak States
• Global inequality
• US hegemony is preserving and extending its control over
institutions, markets, resources
• System challenged on 9/11(Response was uncompromising)
• Potential for Liberalism to embrace Imperialism
• Liberty increases wealth, drive for new markets
• Line b/w interventionist strategies to defend liberal values and
imperialism is very finely drawn
Bush Response……….
• Boost to liberal ideas brought about by the end of the Cold War was the
‘end of history’ thesis (Fukiyama) which rests on the assumption that the
failure of communism in its heartland signaled the final triumph of both
capitalism and liberal democracy as the only
• really viable economic and political systems
• War for democratic peace/Just peace
• Use of force for freedom
• Great powers share common values (deep commitment to Human Freedom)
• Theorizing on the ‘democratic peace’, which was to more or less hijacked
under the administration of George W. Bush as a part of the justification for
a war that actually contravened liberal principles
• Bush’s ‘model of “fight them, beat them, and make them democratic” is
irrevocably flawed as a basis for contemporary action’, while, on a
practical level, the conditions in Iraq were scarcely promising, ‘even if
the occupation had been more competent in its execution’
Doyle’s Suggested Policy

• War for democratic peace/Just peace

• Mix of forcible and Non-forcible instruments for regime change in illiberal
States
 Forging strong alliances with like-minded States defending against
authoritarian States
 Extension of Liberal zone by Economic and Diplomatic instruments
 Inspiration
 Instigation
 Intervention
Liberalism: Take-Home 2 Marks
Read the mandatory text and write a short note on the following:
• Interdependence Liberalism
• Republican Liberalism
• Neo-liberal Institutionalism
• Democratic Peace Theory
• Transnationalist Theory
• A Constructivist Liberal Theory of Cooperation
• Liberal Intergovernmentalism
• What Smith means by ‘the invisible hand’ and ‘natural economy’?
• David Ricardo (1772–1823 theory of comparative advantage
• John Rawls theory of justice
• Immanuel Kant (1724–1804): Categorical Imperative (CI)…… deontological approach vs.
consequentialist or teleological approach
• Elitist liberalism and it impacts on liberalism
• Define the concept of “democide” and why it is important to liberals
• Keynesian ideas social economic liberalism
• John Ruggie’s ‘embedded liberalism’