Understanding State-Level Analysis
State, Nation, and Government Differentiated
Making Foreign Policy: Complexity and Fragmentation
Making Foreign Policy: Types of Government, Situations, and Policy
Types of Government
Types of Situations
Types of Policy
Making Foreign Policy: Political Culture
National Core
Favorable World Order
Projecting Values
Making Foreign Policy: Actors in the Process
Political Executives
Bureaucracies
Legislatures
Political Opposition
Interest Groups
The People
Chapter Objectives
After reading this chapter, you should be able to:
1. Identify the characteristics of a state and distinguish among nation, state, and government
2. Understand various factors affecting foreign policy, including regime type, domestic factors, gender, and the type of situation and issue
3. Explain how a state's internal dynamics influence foreign policy
4. Understand the importance of political culture on foreign policy
5. Evaluate the role and influence of various subnational actors, including political leaders, bureaucratic organizations, legislatures, political parties, interest groups, and the people
Glossary
State: physical political entity--a politically independent country defined by its own territory, and enjoying sovereignty, legal equality, and diplomatic recognition from other states.
Nation: cultural entity--group of people who identify with each other politically because of common characteristics such as language, race, religion; there is a perception of kinship among this group
Government: type of political system--can be classified as being either open and democratic or closed and authoritarian. The extent to which one can access government and the level of political participation is a reliable measure of open-ness or closed-ness of a political system.
Bureaucracy: the bulk of the state's administrative structure that continues when leaders change.
Crisis situation: a circumstance or event with three characteristics: it comes as a surprise to decision makers, that evokes a sense of threat (particularly physical peril), and that must be responded to within a limited amount of time.
Direct democracy: Policy making through a variety of processes, including referendums, by which citizens directly cast ballots on policy issues.
Elites: Those individuals in a political system who exercise disproportionate control of policy either by occupying policy-making positions or by having direct access to and influence over those who do.
Intermestic policy: the merger of international and domestic concerns.
Issue areas: substantive categories of policy that must be considered when evaluating the national interest.
Mass: the nonelite element of a society--those who do not occupy or have access to policy making positions.
Foreign policy: the sum of a country's goals and actions on the world state. Exercised usually by the Executive.
Interest Groups: collections of people who have similar opinions on particular policies and who try to influence government policy. Tend to be most effective in influencing domestic policy because Americans never viewed themselves as being affected by foreign policy.
Gender gap: the difference between males and females along any one of a number of dimensions, including foreign policy preferences.
Political culture: a concept that refers to a society's long-held, and fundamental practices and attitudes. They are based on a country's historical experience and on the values (norms) of its citizens. These attitudes are often an important part of the internal setting in which national political leaders make foreign policy
Political executives: Those officials, usually but not always in the executive branch of a government, who are at the center of foreign policy making and whose tenures are variable and dependent on the political contest for power.
Sphere of influence: a region that a big power claims is of special importance to its national interest and over which the big power exercises special influence.
Status quo situations: Circumstances or events that conform to the existing norm and that are apt to evoke incremental policy decisions that do not significantly change basic policy direction.
Subnational actors: Institutions and other elements of a country's political structure, including the political leadership, legislature, bureaucracy, interest groups, political opposition, and the public.
Two-level game: The concept that in order to arrive at satisfactory international agreements, a country's diplomats actually have to deal with (at one level) the other country's negotiators and (at the second level) legislature, interest group, and other domestic forces at home.
Chapter Overview
I. Understanding State Level Analysis
A. State, Nation, and Government Differentiated
1. State: political entity--country
2. Nation: cultural entity--a group of people who
identify with each other politically
because of common characteristics
3. Government: type of political system--parliamentary
democracy, or regime in power
(Clinton Government, Saddam
Hussein Government)
B. Making Foreign Policy: Complexity and Fragmentation
1. Within any nation a variety of forces impact
the policy-making process
a. Types of domestic systems
b. Policy situations
c. Policy issues
d. Political culture
e. Subnational actors
II. Making Foreign Policy: Types of Government, Situations, and Policy
A. Types of Government
1. Democratic and Authoritarian Governments
a. Breadth of political
participation
b. Number of forms of participation
2. Levels of Democracy
a. Gender gap
B. Types of Situations
1. Crisis
a. Small-group process
b. Pressure to act despite
limited information
c. Reliance on preexisting
perceptions
2. Non-status quo situations
a. Evoke dissent
b. Invoke wider subnational
actor participation
3. Status quo situations
a. Evoke less dissent
b. Incremental policies
that follow established procedures
C. Types of Policy--Issue Areas
1. Domestic vs Foreign
a. Leaders exert more influence
over pure foreign/defense policy; less over domestic
2. Policy is Becoming Intermestic
a. Dilutes leadership as
subnational actors become more active
III. Making Foreign Policy: Political Culture
A. Political Culture: Long-held fundamental beliefs and practices
of society; usually does
not promote specific policies, but exercises
pressures
B. Protecting and Enhancing the National Core
1. Chinese Example
a. Sinocentrism--3,000 year
history of being the Middle Kingdom
b. Insistent sovereighty--current
efforts to regain lost territory and be self-reliant
c. Defensiveness
C. Favorable World Order
1. China
a. Enhanced world role
b. Possible reassertion
over its past sphere of influence in Southeast Asia
c. Increased international
economic interchange
D. Projecting Values--judging by and converting others to them
1. US as example
2. Communism--China less messianic than Russia
IV. Making Foreign Policy: Actors in the Process
A. Political Executives
1. Generally strongest subnational actor
a. Formal power
b. Informal power
c. Predominance in foreign
policy
(1) Tradition
(2) Belief that foreign policy requires executive power
(3) Limited subnational actor involvement
(a) Partly countered by growth of intermestic issues
(4) Advantage over other political actors
B. Bureaucracies
1. Bureaucratic Perspective
a. Often favor one policy
option based on their mission and the policy's impact
2. Bureaucratic Methods
a. Filter information
(1) Inadvertent
(2) Consciously manipulative
b. Recommendations
(1) Limited rational choices presented
c. Implementation
(1) Misunderstandings
(2) Unconscious misinterpretations
(3) Conscious delay, change, rejection
C. Legislatures
1. Less powerful than executive
a. Traditional proerogative
of executive
b. Desire for national unity
c. Greater formal powers
of executive
d. Slow response
e. Inability to negotiate
f. Need for secrecy
g. Lack of expertise
h. Need for strong leadership
D. Political Opposition
1. Types
a. Insider vs Outsider
2. Seek power vs seek new policy
E. Interest Groups
1. Types
a. Cultural groups
b. Economic groups
c. Issue-oriented groups
d. Transnational interest
groups
F. The People
1. Variations in opinion interest and opinion
a. People more interested
in domestic issues
b. Mass vs Elite opinion
2. Quality of public opinion
3. Influence of public opinion
a. Direct democracy
Short Answer Questions
1. In terms of nation, state, and government, how would "Italians" and "Italy" be characterized?
2. List three characteristics of a nation.
3. What factors can be used to measure levels of democracy?
4. What are the three determining characteristics of a crisis?
5. List several characteristics of policy making during a crisis.
6. List three types of situations that affect how foreign policy is made.
7. What are the three structural characteristics of the political system?
8. What are the two main sources of political culture?
9. What reasons did the US give for blocking China's entry into the WTO?
10. Name the seven mani subnational actors.
11. Briefly describe the importance of bureauctatic implementation of a foreign policy decision.
12. List several factors that explain why legislatures do not have a large role inforeign policy.
13. Name five main types of interest groups that affect policy.
14. Do most people consider foreign policy to be unimportant? Explain.
15. Why is it important to understand the quality of public opinion?