NEO-LIBERALISM (SCHOOL OF THOUGHT) & CLASSICAL
LIBERALISM / IDEALISM
CLASSICAL LIBERALISM/IDEALISM
1) Introduction:
“Liberalism has much to its credit. But as John Stuart Mill said
about Christianity, “all truths need fundamental re-examination
from time to time” and if that was true of Christianity in the
18th century, I think that it is just as true of liberalism in the
21st.”
One of the most respected contemporary theorists in the field,
Stanley Hoffman, once famously wrote, “International relations
have been the nemesis of liberalism. The essence of liberalism
is self-restraint, moderation compromise and peace whereas
the essence of international politics is exactly the opposite:
troubled peace, at best, or the state of war.”
Liberalism is an ideology whose central concern is the liberty of
the individual;
• liberals see the establishment of the state as a necessary
part of preserving liberty either from harm by other
individuals or by states; the state must always be the
servant of the collective will, not the master, and
democratic institutions are the means of guaranteeing
this.
• Liberalism is, in fact, a theory of government, one that
seeks to reconcile order and justice within a particular
community.
Liberalism is primarily a theory of government; one that
seeks to reconcile order and justice within a particular
community.
It is the most dominant approaches and named Idealism as
it has a vision of how a new and peaceful world order
might be constructed. It emerged after WWI when there
was a dire need for universal peace. This approach is also
known as Utopian Approach as its ideas can be true only in
imagination not in reality.
Interwar period 1919-39 is taken as idealist era. Idealists
were advocates of League of Nations, World Federalism
and of peace through international law. Its writers and
scholars regard power politics as passing phase of history
and the present. They desired the international system in
future free from power politics in morality and violence.
The basic concept of this approach is quite old and can be
found in Declaration of American War of Independence
(1776) and in French Revolution (1789).
Another image of this approach is world government “that
would be above all national governments”.
2) Important writers:
Condorcet, Rousseau, Kant, Russell and Wilson.
Rousseau says in Fragment on War, “Let’s dismiss evil
which makes men slave and miserable.”
Kant made strong plea for the prevention of war among
states and creation of conditions for perpetual peace. But
probably greatest advocate was Woodrow Wilson, who
gave concrete shape to his idealism through treaty of
Versailles. The whole theory proceeds with assumption of
optimism that interest of various groups or nations are
likely to be adjusted in larger interest of mankind as a
whole.
3) Assumptions: Kegley’s
I. Human nature:
II. Bad human behaviour: evilness of institutions and
structural arrangements which make human selfish.
III. Worst feature of international politics ‘The War’:
IV. War can be eliminated:
V. Role of international society:
4) Criticism:
I. Adaptation of moral principles: reality is material.
II. Behaviour of states: diplomatic tricks and systematic
relations, not moral.
III. Utopian approach:
IV. Formation of world government:
V. Disarmament:
VI. Ignorance of past:
VII. One sided theory:
NEO-LIBERALISM (SCHOOL OF THOUGHT)
1) Introduction:
Neo-liberalism generally refers neo-liberal institutionalism or
now what is called Institutional Theory. However, in the policy
world, neo-liberalism means something different. Neo-liberal
policy promotes free trade and open market and western
democratic values and institutions. Most of the leading western
states have joined US led chorus, calling for the enlargement of
community and of democratic and capitalist nation-states. In
reality, neo-liberal foreign policies tend not to be as wedded to
the ideals of democratic peace, free trade and open borders.
National interest takes precedence over morality and universal
ideas, and much to the dismay of traditional realists, economic
interests are given priority over geo-political ones.
Neo-liberals study political economy and focus on cooperation
and institutions.
2) David Baldwin’s varieties of liberalism:
These four varieties of liberalism influence contemporary
international relations.
I. Commercial Liberalism: it advocates free trade and a market
or capitalist economy towards peace and prosperity. Today it’s
view is promoted by global financial institutions, major trading
states and MNCs.
II. Republican liberalism: it states that democratic states are
more inclined to respect the rights of their citizens and are less
likely to go to war with their democratic neighbours. This view
is presented as democratic peace theory.
Commercial and republican liberalism combine to form core
foreign policy goals of many of the world major powers. The
new liberal internationalism is promoted by the US and its G-8
partners in trade, aid and security policies.
III. Sociological Liberalism: the notion of community and the
process of interdependence are important elements. As
transnational activities increased, people in distant lands linked
and the governments become more interdependent.
Resultantly, it becomes more difficult and more costly for
states to act unilaterally and to avoid cooperation. Many of the
assumptions of the sociological liberalism are presented in
current globalization literature dealing with popular culture and
civil society.
IV. Institutional liberalism: neo-liberal institutionalism is the
most convincing challenge to realist and neo-realist thinking. Its
study suggests that the way towards peace and prosperity is to
have independent states pool their resources and even some of
their sovereignty to create integrated communities to promote
economic growth. EU is one such institution that began as
regional community for encouraging multilateral cooperation.
Neo-liberal institutionalists see institutions as mediator and the
means to achieve cooperation among actors in the system.
They are focusing their research on the issues of the global
governance and creation and maintenance of institutions
associated with managing the processors of globalization.
THE MAIN FEATURES OF THE NEO-REALIST/NEO-LIBERAL
DEBATE
According to Baldwin:
1) Both agree that the international system is anarchic. Neo-
realists say that the anarchiy puts more constraints on foreign
policy and that neo-liberals minimize the importance of survival
as the goal of each state. Neo-liberals claim that neo-realists
minimize the importance of international interdependence,
globalization and the regimes created to manage these
interactions.
2) Neo-realists believe that international cooperation will not
happen unless states make it happen. They feel that it is hard to
achieve, difficult to maintain, and dependent on state power.
Neo-liberals believe that cooperation is easy to achieve in areas
where states have mutual interests.
3) Neo-liberals think that actors with common interests try to
maximize absolute gains. Neo-realists claim that neo-liberals
overlook the importance of relative gains. They believe that the
fundamental goal of states is cooperative relationships is to
prevent others from gaining more.
4) Neo-realists state that anarchy requires states to be
preoccupied with relative power. Security and survival in a
competitive international system. Neo-liberals are more
concerned with economic welfare or international political
economy issues and other nonmilitary issue areas such as
international environmental concerns.
5) Neo-liberals see institutions and regimes as significant forces
in international relations. Neo-realists state that neo-liberals
exaggerate the impact of regimes and institutions on state
behaviour.
