The Moral Purpose of the State: Culture, Social Identity, and Institutional Rationality in International Relations

This book seeks to explain why different systems of sovereign states have built different types of fundamental...
CHF 56.09
CHF 56.09
SKU: 9780691144351
Product Type: Books
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Author: Christian Reus-Smit
Format: Paperback
Language: English
Subtotal: CHF 56.09
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The Moral Purpose of the State: Culture, Social Identity, and Institutional Rationality in International Relations by Reus-Smit, Christian

The Moral Purpose of the State: Culture, Social Identity, and Institutional Rationality in International Relations

CHF 56.09

The Moral Purpose of the State: Culture, Social Identity, and Institutional Rationality in International Relations

CHF 56.09
Author: Christian Reus-Smit
Format: Paperback
Language: English

This book seeks to explain why different systems of sovereign states have built different types of fundamental institutions to govern interstate relations. Why, for example, did the ancient Greeks operate a successful system of third-party arbitration, while international society today rests on a combination of international law and multilateral diplomacy? Why did the city-states of Renaissance Italy develop a system of oratorical diplomacy, while the states of absolutist Europe relied on naturalist international law and "old diplomacy"? Conventional explanations of basic institutional practices have difficulty accounting for such variation. Christian Reus-Smit addresses this problem by presenting an alternative, "constructivist" theory of international institutional development, one that emphasizes the relationship between the social identity of the state and the nature and origin of basic institutional practices.

Reus-Smit argues that international societies are shaped by deep constitutional structures that are based on prevailing beliefs about the moral purpose of the state, the organizing principle of sovereignty, and the norm of procedural justice. These structures inform the imaginations of institutional architects as they develop and adjust institutional arrangements between states. As he shows with detailed reference to ancient Greece, Renaissance Italy, absolutist Europe, and the modern world, different cultural and historical contexts lead to profoundly different constitutional structures and institutional practices. The first major study of its kind, this book is a significant addition to our theoretical and empirical understanding of international relations, past and present.

Author: Christian Reus-Smit
Publisher: Princeton University Press
Published: 11/22/2009
Pages: 216
Binding Type: Paperback
Weight: 0.69lbs
Size: 9.22h x 6.18w x 0.45d
ISBN: 9780691144351

About the Author
Christian Reus-Smit is Senior Lecturer in International Relations at Monash University, Melbourne, Australia. He is the editor, with Albert Paolini and Anthony Jarvis, of Between Sovereignty and Global Governance: The United Nations, the State, and Civil Society.

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