Katzenstein, Keohane and Krasner: International Organization and the Study of World Politics

Katzenstein, PJ, RO Keohane, and SD Krasner. 1998. International organization and the study of world politics. International Organization: 645-685.

Excellent overview of the history of IPE. I picked and gleaned what I wanted.

The authors make a distinction between general theoretical orientations ("...they suggest relevant variables and causal patterns that provide guidelines for developing specific research programs" (646)), specific research programs ("...link explanatory variables to a set of outcomes, or dependent variables" (646)) and general theoretical orientations ("...such as realism, Marxism, liberalism, statism, pluralism, historical institutionalism, rational choice institutionalism, and constructivism..." (646)).

Post Gilpin: "Each perspective gave pride of place to a different explanatory variables: the distribution of power for realists, the interests of different groups for liberals, the structure of the economy, or, more simplistically, the interests of capitalists for Marxists. Each perspective emphasized different causal relations: power and coercion for realism, mutual agreement and contracting for liberalism, mechanisms of exploitation for Marxism" (657).

"Statism is a general theoretical orientation that has generated several specific research programs, all of which assert the autonomy of state institutions...Statism gave greater attention to state institutions, especially those charged with maintaining the stability and well-being of the polity as a whole. The state could be conceived of as an actor, not simply an arena in which conflicting societal interests struggled to secure their preferred policy objectives" (666).

As IPE moves through history, foci changes: there is group of scholars that explore domestic institutions and their relation to international economic systems, for example. There is the emergence of the constructivist school of thought after the fall of the USSR. There is then a kind of turn towards post-modernity.