Session 9- Over lapping Structures.

When we think of states we think of the structures that influence the state and have an impact on the actions that a state takes. In the reading, waltz has presented a comparison between the political and micro-level economic structures. He places a great deal of importance on structure and how it is a monster of its own. Also, he claims that regardless of how diverse two substances are, one can compare them on the basis of how they are organized in connection to one another along with what their capacities and relative abilities are.

Moreover, the micro-level economic structures influence the political structures. For example, according to the Marxist belief, economics is the sub structure upon which other super structures such as politics, religion, education and media are built upon. Hence, he who controls the economic structure controls all other structures in society. These links between various structures can be seen in day to day examples. For example, Rupert Murdock is a famous press barren. He has control over most of the news sources and therefore he ends up influencing which news gets across to the public. Hence from this we can see how the media structure and other structures are related. So Waltz has done a good job by suggesting how various structures in society are inter- related.

Lastly, he talks about how actors within various institutions are restrained by these structures. This then bring up the question that whether or not individuals are free to make their own choices. If structure is what determines the actions of leaders when it comes to policy making, then to what extent can the individual be blamed for a wrong policy? However, by looking at the opposite perspective, these structures are comprised of individuals and hence it is the individuals that make the rules for the functioning of these structures. Therefore, whether the society should be viewed from a micro or macro lens becomes a problem.