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Articles 1 - 3 of 3
Full-Text Articles in Social and Behavioral Sciences
The Evolution Of International Norms, Ann Florini
The Evolution Of International Norms, Ann Florini
Research Collection School of Social Sciences
This article puts forward a theoretical explanation for why norms of international behavior change over time. It argues that the mainstream neorealist and neoliberal arguments on the static nature of state interests are implausible, as the recent empirical work of the growing constructivist school has convincingly shown. But the constructivists have not yet provided a theoretical basis for understanding why one norm rather than another becomes institutionalized, nor has learning theory yet provided an adequate explanation. An evolutionary approach that draws its hypotheses from an analogy to population genetics offers a promising alternative. This article briefly outlines the constructivist critique …
Against The Communitarian Republic, Chandran Kukathas
Against The Communitarian Republic, Chandran Kukathas
Research Collection School of Social Sciences
Communitarianism has risen to prominence in recent debates in political philosophy largely on the strength of its criticisms of liberalism. Among its more important criticisms is the charge that liberal political thinking does not properly appreciate the value of community. At a deeper level, communitarian ism asserts that liberalism is infected by confusions about the nature of community, thinking?mistakenly?that it is no more than an associa tion of separate, isolated, 'atomistic' individuals. Communitarians thus advance not only certain claims about value but also other claims about how the human world should be understood.
Pluralism, Multiculturalism And Group Rights, Chandran Kukathas
Pluralism, Multiculturalism And Group Rights, Chandran Kukathas
Research Collection School of Social Sciences
However prevalent may have been the longing for homogeneity, or at least social unity, in political thinking, the fundamental point which must be recognized is that cultural diversity or pluralism has been the most notable feature of society in the history of human set tlement. "Marginality and pluralism were and are the norm of civi lized existence."1 There are several reasons why this is the pattern revealed by history.2 The first has to do with the ubiquity of military conflict. Even among barbarians ethnic political unity was fragile because military conquests resulted in the mixing of peoples. But throughout history …