Contemporary Debates Midterm

Public policy in a liberal democracy

Involves the application of intellect to state action in pursuit of the public interest, subject to the limits of knowledge and the direction of legitimate authority.

Facts

indisputable data points

theories

ways of thinking about the underlying connections and relationships between those data points

narratives

Stories people tell, based on theories they believe, to explain how events play out. They simplify the world’s chaos into coherent, overarching patterns.

Fukuyama, End of History

Argument: the end of the Cold War and the global spread of liberal democratic capitalism signaled a conclusion to humanity’s ideological struggle. He meant not that events would stop, but that no rival system could satisfy human needs better.

Huntington, Clash of Civilizations

Argument: in the post-Cold War World, conflicts would be driven less by political ideology, economics, or material power than by cultural divisions. Differences among civilizations—large cultural groupings—would be the main source of global conflict.

Mearsheimer, Tragedy of Great Power Politics

Argument: great powers are always competing for dominance and survival. He sees global politics as a constant struggle in which sovereign states seek power for security and influence.

Trump, American Carnage

Argument: the postwar international system and recent globalization have hurt most Americans while helping only a few at the top, and that American alliances are scams run by the weak to take advantage of the strong.

Shifting baselines syndrome

Happens when people measure change against the conditions they personally first encountered, rather than in the context of a deeper past. It exaggerates the stability of the current situation and obscures the influence of long-term structural forces.

Rose’s First Law of Policy

All policies suck, but some suck more than others.

Forager Era/Paleolithic

The long period when fully modern humans lived as hunter-gatherers, lasting from 70,000 until about 12,000 years ago. Societies were small, mobile, and egalitarian, adapted to living off the land.

Neolithic Revolution

The shift from hunting and gathering to agriculture starting about 12,000 years ago. It involved the domestication of plants and animals and enabled permanent settlements, population growth, and the rise of complex societies.

Agricultural Era

The period following the Neolithic Revolution, when farming and animal husbandry became humanity’s dominant mode of existence. It lasted until the modern era and industrial revolution. Agricultural societies had larger populations, greater social and economic inequality, and more complex political systems.

Malthusian Trap

This early 19th century idea refers to the tendency of human population growth to outpace food production, keeping most people at subsistence levels. It characterized human history until the industrial revolution.

Peace of Westphalia

This 1648 action ended the Thirty Year’s War in Europe. It recognized state authority over religion and borders and is considered the origin of the modern state system based on sovereignty and non-interference.

Balance of Power

a system in which no single state dominates, with order maintained through shifting alliances to counter aspiring hegemons

Concert of Europe

the balance of power’s institutional form in Europe after the Napoleonic Wars, set up at the Congress of Vienna (1814-1815)

Colonialism

the practice of conquering, ruling, and sometimes settling populations in foreign lands

Imperialism

a policy aimed at pursuing colonialism

Scientific Revolution

In the 16th-17th centuries, it was a profound shift in Western thought that transformed understandings of nature and the physical world. It replaced reliance on tradition and revealed truth with empirical observation, experimentation, and open-ended theorizing.

The Enlightenment

It was an 18th-century intellectual movement stressing reason, liberty, and progress. It challenged monarchy and religious authority and advocated rights, tolerance, and scientific inquiry. It provided the ideological foundation for secular liberal democracy and inspired revolutions in the United States and France.

Industrial Revolution

Beginning in Britain in the late 18th century, it was a transformation from an agrarian economy to one organized around industrial production. It introduced mechanization, steam power, and factory systems that dramatically increased productivity and reshaped work, social relations, and living standards.

Liberal international order

The system set up by the US and its allies after WWII in which Washington protected and supported a team of friendly states and they accepted American power. Characterized by collective security, multilateral institutions, freer trade, and increasing interdependence. It started in the American sphere of the Cold War and expanded globally after.

Levels of analysis

a scheme for organizing variables in international relations theories, ranging from the individual to the state to the international system

First image level of analysis theories

first image theories involve human nature and the choices of individuals

Second image level of analysis theories

second image theories involve national politics and institutions

Third image level of analysis theories

third image theories involve the structure and dynamics of the international system

alliance

a formal or informal agreement between states to cooperate for security, linking states together and coordinating their policies

Clausewitz

A 19th century Prussian military theorist whose treatise On War remains foundational to strategic studies. He emphasized war’s purposive political nature; its combination of passion, chance, and reason; and the role of friction in military operations.

strategy

a plan for using military engagements to achieve a political objective

tactics

methods for winning military engagements

friction

Clausewitz argue that this is what distinguishes war in real life from war on paper: the countless small problems, mistakes, and unforeseen challenges that disrupt plan and frustrate commanders’ expectations.

deterrence

The use of threats to prevent an adversary from taking unwanted actions. It rests on convincing the other side that the costs of aggression will outweigh the benefits.

security dilemma

This describes how the measures a state takes to increase its own security can make others feel insecure and threatened, leading them to arm as well. It can create a spiral of mistrust when no side wants conflict.

Productivity

A measure of how much output is produced relative to an amount of input such as labor or capital. Increases allow societies to produce more wealth without using additional resources.

Entrepreneur

Someone who takes the initiative to organize resources, bear risk, and create new businesses. They often bring innovation and disruption to established markets.

Trade

The exchange of goods and services between people, regions, or nations. It enables specialization and gives access to products that would otherwise be unavailable or costly to produce locally.

Mercantilism

A doctrine that views wealth as finite and advises states to increase national power by controlling trade so to maximize exports, minimize imports, and accumulate bullion. Its heyday was the 16th-18th century, although its arguments can still be heard today.

Laissez-faire

The principle that economic life should be left largely to free markets without government interference. Its advocates argue that voluntary exchange and competition naturally produce efficient outcomes.

Smith, Invisible hand

This metaphor suggests that self-interested behavior in markets can lead to socially beneficial results, as individuals seeking profit unintentionally promote collective prosperity.

Ricardo, Comparative advantage

This idea shows how nations can gain from specializing in what they are most efficient at producing, even if others are more efficient still. It remains fundamental to arguments for free trade.

Schumpeter, Creative destruction

This idea argues that capitalism advances through the development of new businesses that displace existing ways of doing things. The result is a dynamic system with constant innovation and turmoil.

Polanyi, Double movement

This described how the advance of markets and economic liberalization produces dynamism along with an eventual pushback by societies seeking protection from change and a return of collective control.

Revolution of rising expectations

This describes a situation in which economic, social, or political improvement raises people’s aspirations faster than institutions can deliver, producing frustration and instability. The concept helps explain the counterintuitive phenomenon of progress producing discontent.

Dahl, Polyarchy

This refers to a political system characterized by high levels of both contestation and participation. It captures some of the main features of liberal democracy, defined procedurally.

Huntington, Third wave

Argument: the advance of democracy around the world has occurred in distinct waves, followed by reverse waves of democratic breakdown. The third wave began in 1974 with transitions in Southern Europe, spreading later to Latin America, Asia, and Eastern Europe. It peaked in the 2000s and has receded since then.

Zakaria, Illiberal democracy

This refers to political systems that had democratic procedures and elections but lacked the safeguards of constitutional liberalism—checks and balances on executive power, protections of individual rights, and the rule of law. It was later embraced by some regimes, such as Victor Orban’s Hungary.

1848

A wave of popular revolutions that swept across much of Europe, driven by demands for constitutional government, national self-determination, and social and economic reform. The wave was quickly reversed, but in the long run could be seen to weaken the old order and presage future liberalization.

Arab Spring

A wave of popular uprisings beginning in Tunisia in late 2010 that swept across much of the Arab world, challenging authoritarian governments and demanding political reform, economic opportunity, and greater accountability. The wave was quickly reversed, but its long-term impact remains unclear.

Tank Man

The unidentified individual photographed standing in front of Chinese military tanks during the 1989 Tiananmen Square protests in Beijing. His solitary act of defiance became an enduring symbol of resistance to authoritarian power, even as the protests were ultimately suppressed.

Malala

A Pakistani activist for girls’ education. She survived a Taliban assassination attempt in 2012 and went on to campaign globally for the right to education. In 2014, she became the youngest-ever Nobel Peace Prize laureate.

Alexei Navalny

A Russian opposition leader, lawyer, and anti-corruption activist. He exposed elite corruption and organized large-scale protests against Vladimir Putin’s government. After surviving a poisoning in 2020, he returned to Russia, was imprisoned, and died in custody in 2024, becoming a symbol of resistance to authoritarian rule.

Holocene

The relatively warm, relatively stable geological epoch that began roughly 11,700 years ago, after the last Ice Age. It provided the environmental conditions that made agriculture, permanent settlement, and civilization possible.

Anthropocene

A proposed new geological epoch in which human activity has become the dominant force shaping Earth’s climate and ecosystems. The concept highlights the scale of human impact on the environment, a scale that has come to rival natural geologic processes.

Greenhouse Gases (GHG)

These include carbon dioxide, methane, and nitrous oxide, trapping heat in the atmosphere and drive climate change. Their presence in the atmosphere is a natural phenomenon worsened by human emissions, with a rising concentration since the Industrial Revolution underlying current global warming.

Collective action problem

This occurs when individuals would all benefit from cooperation but have incentives to defect and free-ride instead. In such situations, cooperation often collapses, leading to under-provision of public goods or failure to address shared threats. Climate change is a classic example.

Carbon tax

These put a direct price on greenhouse gas emissions, making users pay for the damage their emissions cause. It aims to shift incentives toward cleaner energy and consumption. Economists often favor it as a simple and efficient tool to reduce emissions.

Geoengineering

This refers to large-scale, deliberate interventions in Earth’s climate system to counteract global warming. Proposals include trying to manage solar radiation by reflecting sunlight and trying to remove carbon dioxide already in the atmosphere.

Degrowth

This is a movement calling for deliberately scaling down production and consumption to achieve ecological sustainability and social equity. It challenges the assumption that GDP growth is always desirable and advocates redistribution, sufficiency, and well-being.

Green growth

This is a movement arguing that economies can continue to expand while reducing environmental harm. It stresses innovation, efficiency, and renewable energy to decouple growth from emissions and resource use. It offers a more optimistic path than degrowth, aiming for sustainability through transformation rather than contraction.

Romer, Endogenous growth theory

This explains long-run economic growth as a result of internal factors rather than external technological shocks. Its founder showed that the spillover effects of ideas generated increasing returns, highlighting the economic role of knowledge, human capital, and investment in research and innovation.

Product technology

Innovation can occur through new products or through new ways of producing them. This refers to the creation of entirely new goods or services.

Process Technology

Innovation can occur through new products or through new ways of producing them. This refers to more efficient or cost-effective ways of making existing goods.

Exponential growth

This happens when something grows faster as it gets bigger—like interest in a bank account. Instead of increasing incrementally, it increases geometrically, so small changes at the start can lead to huge differences later.

Energy poverty

This is the lack of reliable and affordable access to modern energy services such as electricity, heating, and clean cooking fuels. It severely restricts economic development, health, and education.

Green revolution

In the mid-20th century, this dramatically increased agricultural productivity through the introduction of high-yield crop varieties, chemical fertilizers, pesticides, and expanded irrigation. Spearheaded by figures such as Norman Borlaug, it reduced famine risk in Asia and Latin America.

Synthetic biology

This applies engineering principles to biology, redesigning organisms or creating entirely new biological systems. By manipulating DNA “parts” as modular building blocks, it has applications from biofuels and biodegradable materials to personalized medicine.

Precautionary principle

This holds that when a new technology or practice poses potential risks to health or the environment, it should be treated with caution even if full scientific certainty is lacking. Rooted in European environmental law but applied more broadly, it reflects a “better safe than sorry” ethos.

Singularity

The technological form of this is a speculative future moment when advances in computing, artificial intelligence, and other accelerating technologies trigger runaway, self-reinforcing growth. It envisions machines rapidly surpassing human intelligence, with unpredictable consequences for society—triggering what would be a fourth level of the human game.

Groupism

The tendency to for humans to identify with a group and see the world through the prism of group identities. It can foster solidarity within a group and hostility between groups. It shapes identity, loyalty, and political conflict.

Fundamental attribution error

A pervasive cognitive bias in which people disproportionately attribute others’ actions to their dispositions or character, while neglecting situational explanations (and do the reverse for themselves). It can be a source of misperception in both everyday life and international politics.

Availability bias

A decision-making heuristic in which individuals assess probabilities based on how readily examples come to mind. Because striking or recent events are easier to recall, they loom larger psychologically than their statistical weight suggests they should.

Confirmation bias

The predisposition to seek, interpret, and remember information in ways that affirm one’s prior beliefs or commitments. It distorts reasoning and hardens ideological divides, as individuals selectively credit evidence that supports their views and discount evidence that challenges them.

Cognitive dissonance

A psychological state of tension arising when one’s beliefs, values, or self-conception conflict with one’s actions or with new evidence. People typically resolve this by rationalizing, revising beliefs, or ignoring contradictions.

Carlyle, Great man theory of history

The notion that history is shaped by the deeds of extraordinary individuals, whose vision and character drive events more than broad structural forces. It emphasizes leadership and contingency.

Milgram experiments

These obedience studies in the early 1960s showed that ordinary individuals were willing to administer what they believed to be painful, even lethal, shocks to others when instructed by an authority figure. The findings illuminated the ease with which authority and institutional context can override moral instincts.

Asch experiments

These 1950s studies on conformity demonstrated that individuals often align their judgments with a majority even when the group’s answers are clearly wrong. The experiments highlighted the power of social pressure and the fragility of independent judgment, offering insight into conformity in authoritarian and democratic settings alike.

Machiavelli

He was a political thinker during the Italian Renaissance best known for The Prince (1513). His realist view recast politics as an autonomous realm where rulers had to use deception, coercion, and adaptability to secure power. He emphasized pragmatism over principle.

Hobbes

He was as seventeenth-century English philosopher who pioneered modern realism. In Leviathan (1651), he argued that without a sovereign authority, human life would descend into violent competition, as individuals pursue survival and dominance in a state of nature that was a war of all against all.

Anarchy

In international relations, the condition of a group of units with no overarching authority above them. This creates a self-help system where states must rely for security on their own capabilities and strategies. Realists argue that this inevitably leads to conflict.

Leviathan

Hobbes’ metaphor for the state, envisioned as an all-powerful sovereign—a “mortal god”—that individuals accept to escape the anarchy of the state of nature. It symbolizes both authority and protection.

Distribution of power

This is the way military and economic capabilities are spread among the units in an international system. A unipolar system has one dominant power; a bipolar system has two; a multipolar system has several. Realists believe the distribution of power plays a crucial role in shaping state behavior and international outcomes.

Absolute vs. relative gains

Absolute gains measure one’s own benefit. Relative gains involve how one fares compared with others. Disputes over relative gains can lead to conflict even when all players in a game might achieve absolute gains by cooperating. This tension helps explain why cooperation often fails under anarchy.

Zero-sum game

A situation where one player’s gain is another player’s loss. As opposed to a positive-sum game, in which all players can win, or a negative-sum game, in which all players can lose.

Balancing

Three types of strategies states adopt in response to rising powers. This involves trying to counter it.

Bandwagoning

Three types of strategies states adopt in response to rising powers. This means trying to side with it (if you can’t beat them, join them).

Buckpassing

Three types of strategies states adopt in response to rising powers. This means trying to avoid the cost of balancing by letting others do it.

Marx

He was a 19th century German thinker whose work shaped the socialist movement. He analyzed capitalism as a system driven by class conflict, exploitation, and the concentration of wealth, and envisioned its eventual overthrow by the working class to create a classless society.

Bourgeoisie

In Marxist theory, these are the owners of the means of production—factories, capital, and resources—whose economic power gives them social and political dominance under capitalism.

Proletariat

This is the working class that owns no productive property and must sell its labor to survive. Marx saw it as the universal class destined to overthrow the bourgeoisie through revolutionary struggle.

Alienation

Marx’s concept that under capitalism, workers are estranged from the products of their labor, the process of work, their fellow humans, and their own potential, because their labor is controlled and commodified by others. It is a psychological/social condition.

Exploitation

The extraction of surplus value from workers, whereby capitalists pay labor less than the value it creates, appropriating the difference as profit. It is an economic mechanism—one that was, for Marx, the core injustice of capitalism.

Commodification

This is the process by which goods, services, and even social relations are turned into marketable commodities.

Decommodification

This refers to efforts—often through welfare states or public services—to shield individuals from total dependence on markets for their well-being.

Lenin

He was a Russian revolutionary who developed a new form of Marxist theory for application to the conditions of Tsarist Russia, a semi-feudal empire. He argued for a disciplined vanguard party to lead the proletariat, oversaw the 1917 Bolshevik Revolution, and laid the foundations of the Soviet state.

Mao

He was a Chinese revolutionary who developed a version Marxist-Leninist theory for application to early twentieth century China, a predominantly agrarian society. He emphasized a peasant revolution, led the Chinese Communist Party to victory in the country’s civil war, and created a one-party state marked by radical campaigns such as the Great Leap Forward and the Cultural Revolution.

Communism

A projected social order based on the abolition of the private ownership of the means of production. Marx believed this would be the culmination of history, replacing scarcity and exploitation with collective freedom. In practice, twentieth century systems of this generated scarcity and reduced freedom.

Social Democracy

A reformist offshoot of the socialist movement that accepts a capitalist economic framework but subordinates markets to democratic political control, seeking to achieve broad-based prosperity and social justice through regulation, redistribution, and welfare provisions aimed at decommodification.

Locke, consent of the governed

In his Second Treatise on Government, this 17th century British philosopher argued that government exists as a social contract to protect the natural rights of individuals, that political authority is legitimate only when derived from this agreement, and that consent must be repeatedly granted. This idea helped underwrite the American Revolution and remains foundational to modern liberal democracy.

Montesquieu, separation of powers and doux commerce

In The Spirit of the Laws, this 18th century French thinker proposed that the protection of liberty requires the separation of government into legislative, executive, and judicial branches, each able to check the others. His analysis influenced the framers of the U.S. Constitution. He also advanced this thesis, the idea that economic interactions promote peace and civilize societies by encouraging moderation, trust, and cooperation.