Some reflections on the assumptions of the mainstream international relations theory

Abstract

SUMMARY The present paper first examines Stephen D. Krasner ’s analysis of state sovereignty and some criticisms raised against it. The examination shows that the issue of change versus continuity lies at the bottom of the opposition between Krasner and his critics. The opposition can be generalized into that between the mainstream international relations theorists and its critics, especially constructivism, because the former assumes that the international system is unchanged. The opposition boils down to the difference in the time span. The mainstream theory also assumes that state, the unit of the international system is unitary, thus excluding important actors and factors of domestic politics from international relations. This assumption is again severely criticized. Helen V. Milner proposes an extension of the mainstream theory to include domestic politics, on the basis of the criticism of the limit of the theory. This paper examines her proposal as an example of the criticism. It shows that the necessity of the inclusion or exclusion of domestic actors or domestic politics depends upon the particular research objective which a researcher pursues, and that the debates about the inclusion of domestic politics