PART I
ALEXANDER WENDT
THE SOCIAL CONSTRUCTIVIST VIEW OF IDEAS
The claim is not that ideas are more important than power and interest, or that they are
autonomous from power and interest.
The claim is rather that power and interest have
the effects they do in virtue of the ideas that make them up.
Power and interest
explanations presuppose ideas, and to that extent are not rivals to ideational
explanations at all . . .
Let me [propose] a rule of thumb for idealists: when confronted by ostensibly “material”
explanations, always inquire into the discursive conditions which make them work.
When Neorealists offer multipolarity as an explanation for war, inquire into the discursive
conditions that constitute the poles as enemies rather than friends. When Liberals offer
economic interdependence as an explanation for peace, inquire into the discursive
conditions that constitute states with identities that care about free trade and
economic growth. When Marxists offer capitalism as an explanation for state forms,
inquire into the discursive conditions that constitute capitalist relations of production.
And so on.
Wendt
