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The force of prescriptions

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  22 May 2009

Friedrich Kratochwil
Affiliation:
Assistant Professor of Political Science at Columbia University, New York City.
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Abstract

How do norms influence choices in social life? Conceptual distinctions among types of norms and suggestions in the work of Hobbes, Hume, and Durkheim help us investigate in greater detail the “woolly” concept of regimes in international relations. When we disaggregate the “set of explicit and implicit norms, rules, and decisionmaking procedures” in a given issue area and focus on the conceptual links between rules, principles (norms), and actions, we gain an understanding of the role of norms in social life that is more comprehensive than the understanding provided by traditional accounts. Furthermore, placing the present regime discussion within wider philosophical traditions enables us to develop a more critical approach to the building of theory in the social sciences, since the use of norms as explanatory devices challenges the predominant positivist outlook in several important respects.

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Copyright
Copyright © The IO Foundation 1984

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References

1. For an influential neorealist treatise see Waltz, Kenneth, Theory of International Politics (Reading, Mass.: Addison-Wesley, 1979)Google Scholar. The standard reference for the regime approach is Krasner, Stephen, ed., International Regimes (Ithaca: Cornell University Press, 1983)Google Scholar.

2. For an elaboration of this criticism see Susan Strange, “Cave! Hie Dragones,” in Krasner, International Regimes.

3. This is the consensus definition adopted by the contributors to Krasner, International Regimes.

4. Articles by Arthur Stein and Robert Keohane in ibid.

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10. I adopt here a social-choice perspective that was imaginatively applied to international relations by Young, Oran in his “Anarchy and Social Choice,” World Politics 30 (01 1978), pp. 242–63CrossRefGoogle Scholar. See also Young's, Compliance and Public Authority (Baltimore: Johns Hopkins University Press, 1979)Google Scholar. Compare also Hardin, Russell, Collective Action (Baltimore: Johns Hopkins University Press, 1982). Arguing that the effectiveness of conventions in prisoner's dilemma situations requires a larger cognitive element than is the case in coordination games, Hardin shows that conventions can come into existence and guide action either when groups are small or when the overlapping nature of various activities and/or group membership creates the knowledge necessary for norm-conform action. For further discussion see chaps. 11 and 12Google Scholar.

11. Hume, David, The Philosophical Works, ed. Green, Thomas H. and Grose, Thomas H. (rpt. from the 1886 ed.; Aalen: Scientia, 1964), 2: 105.Google Scholar

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20. The classic work on collective goods is Olson, Mancur, The Logic of Collective Action (New York: Schocken, 1969)Google Scholar. For a recent critical evaluation of the collective good argument see Kimber, Richard, “Collective Action and the Fallacy of the Liberal Fallacy,” World Politics 33 (01 1981), pp. 178–96CrossRefGoogle Scholar. See also Frohlich, Norman, Oppenheimer, Joe, and Young, Oran, Political Leadership and Collective Goods (Princeton: Princeton University Press, 1971)Google Scholar, and Richelson, Jeffrey, “A Note on Collective Goods and the Theory of Political Entrepreneurship,” Public Choice 16 (1973), pp. 7578CrossRefGoogle Scholar.

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23. For an “economic” analysis of legal prescriptions see Calabresi, Guido and Melamed, Douglas, “Property Rules, Liability Rules and Inalienability, One View of the Cathedral,” Harvard Law Review 85 (04 1982), pp. 10891128CrossRefGoogle Scholar.

24. Rawls, Theory of Justice, chap. 1, sec. 4.

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29. See e.g. Hobbes's discussion on the importance of language and the common meanings of terms, and his argument about religion and the need of authoritative regulation of both areas by the sovereign: Leviathan, pt. I, chap. 4 (speech); pt. III, chap. 42 (religion); and pt. II, chap. 18 (right of sovereign to regulate).

30. Durkheim, Emile, Sociology and Philosophy, trans. Pocock, D. F. (New York: Free Press, 1974), pp. 42fGoogle Scholar.

31. Ibid., p. 69.

32. Habermas, Jürgen, Theorie des kommunikativen Handelns, vol. 2 (Frankfurt: Suhrkamp, 1981), p. 79, my translationGoogle Scholar.

33. Durkheim, , Sociology and Philosophy, p. 45Google Scholar.

34. The fundamental distinction between rules and principles is that rules “apply in all or nothing fashion” while principles “have the dimension of weight and importance,” and thus their application usually requires trade-offs between competing values. For a further elaboration see Dworkin, Taking Rights Seriously, chaps. 2 and 3.

35. I follow here mainly Flathman's, Richard discussion in his Political Obligation (New York: Atheneum, 1972)Google Scholar.

36. Here Austin's remarks about infelicities are relevant; see Austin, J. L., How to Do Things with Words (Cambridge: Harvard University Press, 1962), p. 18Google Scholar.

37. For a more extended discussion of this point see Mayberry, Thomas, “Laws, Moral Laws and God's Commands,” Journal of Value Inquiry 4 (Winter 1970), pp. 287–92.CrossRefGoogle Scholar

38. For a further discussion of this point see my Is International Law ‘Proper’ Law?Archiv für Rechts und Sozialphilosophie 69 (1983), pp. 1346Google Scholar.

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43. Lakatos, “Falsification and the Methodology.”

44. Pitkin, Hannah, Wittgenstein on Justice (Berkeley: University of California Press, 1972), p. 269Google Scholar.

45. Hart, , The Concept of Law, pp. 55 and 56Google Scholar.

46. See for further elaboration Flathman, Political Obligation, chap. 2.