Ideas and Interests

In this week’s reading I learned that there are a range of possibilities that cause actors to do what they do. The two main influences of preferese discussed in the readings are ideas and interests. In The Protestant Ethic and the Spirit of Capitalism, Weber asserts that “magical and religious powers, and the ethical notions of duty based on them, have been...the most important formative influences upon the way life has been organized” (Weber 160). Weber attempts to illustrate how certain beliefs structure certain ways of life and describes the West’s know-how in all facets of life including music, architecture, maths and sciences, politics, etc., by linking its success to its Christian roots. “A fully developed systematic theology  In particular, the West’s ties to Puritanism and Calvinism, which are sects known to value hard work, especially in the United States, are what led to the “capitalist” economy. Thus, our ideas and beliefs according to Weber are what influence human behavior.

In Ideas and Foreign Policy: An Analytical Framework, Goldstein and Keohane believe that both ideas and interest influence human action, and seek to show how ideas matter for policy. The authors argue that “actions depend on the substantive quality of available ideas, since such idea help to clarify principles and conceptions of casual relationships, and to coordinate individual behavior” (Goldstein 5). Also, when ideas are institutionalized they become so ingrained in society that they continue to guide people's decisions even when those ideas are no longer clear or relevant. And while ideas may serve as a road maps they can also costrain public policy by “limiting choice because it logically excludes other interpretations of reality or at least suggests that such interpretations are not worthy of sustained exploration” (Goldstein 12). However, the demand for ideas is mainly generated when “interests and strategies are unclear or lack consensus”. The study seems to suggest that ideas and interest are separate entities that both influence men’s actions, but that interest is the default preference.

Laffey and Weldes’ Beyond Belief was somewhat of a challenging read. What I was able to gather is that the authors are not in accordance with Goldstein and Keohane. Instead, Laffey and Welde believe that ideas are what cause your interests and therefore are not separate elements. “[B]roader ‘world-views’ are consequential for the explanation of foreign policy in that they place limits on the range of narrower ‘causal’ beliefs which can be adopted. (Laffey 202)”

While I have read through the material once I think it is necessary to do so a second and third time. At the moment I am digesting all the information but more reading and discussion will be necessary in order for me to get a good grasp on the authors experiments and ideas about whether interest or ideas influence mens actions, or if both do. Nevertheless, the subject is an important one because knowing why people act the way they do is essential in helping humans better understand themselves which is essential to our enlightenment and hopefully progress in the world.

References

Goldstein, Judith, and Robert Keohane. "Ideas and Foreign Policy: Beliefs, Institutions, and Political Change." Cornell University Press. doi:10.1163/2468-1733_shafr_sim290020020.
Laffey, Mark, and Jutta Weldes. "Beyond Belief:." European Journal of International Relations3, no. 2 (1997): 193-237. doi:10.1177/1354066197003002003.
Weber, Max. "The Protestant Ethic and the Spirit of Capitalism." The Cambridge Companion to Weber: 149-71. doi:10.1017/ccol9780521561495.010.

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