SESSION 6: The Half-Blood State
In his book, Idealist Internationalism and Security Dilemma, John Herz draws comparison between two of the primary contending schools of thought in international relations; Liberalism and Realism. He gives examples from the history of various countries which applied these ideologies and then analyses the long term consequences. Towards the end of the reading, a new concept is introduced by the author: Realistic Liberalism.
This ideology bridges the gap between Realism and Liberalism and offers a balanced alternate to the two extreme theories. The approach is dialectic, unifying the two schools into a hybrid. Realistic Liberalism encapsulates the most meritorious elements of both the ideologies. The first half of this is pertaining to the facts (quantitative) and the latter is about the aims or ideas (qualitative) in the system. It is similar to concept of Social Democracy, which is a political philosophy that aims to achieve socialist goals within a capitalist society. It is also a model of amalgamation of two diverse ideologies. Welfare Capitalism is an example of social democracy. It was first introduced in the 19th Century and includes comprehensive social welfare policies. It is basically a practice of businesses providing welfare facilities to their workers, where welfare states exist independently but extensive regulation is also carried out. In this way it is a mixture of the Laissez-Faire system and that of a Planned Economy.
John Herz's idea of Realistic Liberalism is too simplistic and it might not be as simple as it seems to apply this model because realism and liberalism are two ideologies with inherently contrasting nature. However, Realistic Liberalism does call for extending horizons of interest and the practice of thorough adaptation.
My opinion is that Hertz's idea of Realistic Liberalism is holistic rather than being too simplistic because he attempts to find a middle passage that should intend to satisfy both groups of Realism and Idealism. Realists have highlighted the shortcomings in Idealism and Idealists have highlighted the shortcomings in realism. The reason why Realistic-Liberalism will intend to satisfy both groups because it aims to include only the advantages of both realism and idealism like Mixed Market economy that intends to include only the advantages of free market economy and planned economy. Hence, I believe both the supporters of free market and planned economies would be willing to adopt a mixed market economy since it would allow both the groups to carry out their activities. Same is the case here. If the elements of two extreme models of economies can be incorporated into a single model then why not in political sciences if one model intends to include only the advantages of both ideologies and attempts to satisfy them both.
ReplyDeleteI don't think there is a quantitative/qualitative syncretism per se, but rather there is a fusion of the most salient ideas from both perspectives. But I agree that combining the two perspectives is difficult since both have their distinct ideas.
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