Constructivism and International Institutions: Toward Conversations across Paradigms
Discusses the utility of social constructivism for the study of international institutions with an eye toward a confluence between rationalist & constructivist paradigms & problem-oriented rather than paradigm-driven research. Metatheoretical assumptions driving rationalist & constructivist institutionalisms are compared. Three logics of social action are described -- consequentialism, appropriateness, & truth seeking or arguing -- in terms of how these two paradigms weight them: rational choice emphasizes a logic of instrumental rationality & consequentialism & is self-consciously agency centered, while constructivism can be divided in more structural accounts stressing the logic of appropriateness & rule following & on more agency-centered ideas devoted to argumentative rationality & persuasion. Key terms used in the constructivist approach are defined before specifying how constructivism differs from rational choice in looking at international institutions & how the two approaches to institutionalism might meet. For the latter, three examples are presented: (1) Rationalist & sociological versions of institutionalism theorize about path-dependent processes. (2) There is a difference between the taken-for-granted nature of social norms or the enactment of cultural scripts & arguments about bounded rationality. (3) There is a controversy regarding causal vs constitutive effects of political institutions. Paradigm convergence is exposed through an analysis of the life cycle of international institutions, focusing empirical contributions to the study of the emergence & change of international norms & institutions & their impact on domestic political life in terms of rule compliance. It is concluded that combining the different logics of social action to show how they complement each other is the most promising direction for future institutionalist inquiry in international relations; implications of this for the practical knowledge of international politics are shared. J. Zendejas