ASTK12167U Ideas in Political Analysis and International Relations

This course is concerned with the explanatory power of ideas in politics and
international relations. The past two decades have witnessed a growing interest in ideational approaches in political science. However, mainstream or orthodox
scholarship still tends to prefer to explain political processes and outcomes via an understanding of ‘interests’ rooted in positivism, materialism and rationalism. The course explores, via numerous examples from comparative politics and international relations, the various ways in which ideational approaches have sought to challenge this orthodox position. It considers the strengths and weaknesses of such approaches and thinks about the debates between them. It also discusses about some of the novel areas of enquiry that are potentially opened up by thinking about the importance of ideas. Some of the liveliest debates in contemporary social science surround the extent to which ideas are important. Are ideas merely the rhetorical devices to justify the pursuit of interests? Or do ideas actually explain big social and political transformations? If they do, is it the case that ideas always matter? Or do ideas only change political outcomes in time of crisis when uncertainty prevails? Whose ideas matter? How do ideas travel from one political context to another? Can the articulation of an idea shape reality in the image of that idea? Do political actors really believe the ideas that they espouse? And how would we know if they did? Is it possible to measure – via quantitative methods - the influence of ideas in the political world? Why do some bad ideas continue to be influential and why do some political actors deliberately propagate bad ideas? This, it should be said, is not
an exhaustive list.

The course begins with a discussion of what ‘ideas’ are, how they might be importantin understanding politics and international relations, and how they have been studies (from older discussions around the concept of ‘ideology’ to more recent traditions of ideational analysis). It moves on to consider some of the different ways in which ideas can be said to reflect or embody ‘power’. It then explores three broad (and overlapping) ways in which ‘ideas’ have been integrated into explanation and understanding of political phenomena: rationalism, constructivism and poststructuralism. From the discussion of these three broad traditions, the course moves on to discuss how ideas might be considered sources of change in politics.
This part of the course asks when ideas matter and whether ideas have most
leverage at times of crisis or ‘uncertainty’. The next issue is the question of how ideas spread and become influential. This leads to a discussion of how particular actors vested with authority or ‘expertise’ can be important sources for the distribution and widespread adoption of ideas. The course considers political rhetoric not simply as a counterpoint to political reality, but as a central part of the political world. The course also asks about bad ideas and why, from time to time they become influential, and how some ideas are marginalized as ‘bad’. Finally the course considers two positions in the debate about ideas having ‘reality effects’, that is changing the world in ways that are consistent with particular ideas: self-fulfilling prophesies and ‘performativity’. These topics are discussed via theoretical literature and a wealth of empirical examples covering such topics as the politics of climate change, the construction of the European Union, the continuing potency of neoliberal economic ideas, discourses of ‘globalization’, the construction of gender roles, the rise of social democracy, conservative and religious rhetoric, debates about the ‘clash of civilizations’ and the effects of opinion polling.