In What Senses Do "ideas" Determine Political Events?

The concept of "idea", for a significant duration of modern political science, has been ignored and devalued in its role in determining political events. As Colin Hay comments: "There has, traditionally, been very limited space accorded to ideas as causal (or constitutive) factors in mainstream political science and international relations." (Hay, 2002, p. 195) More recently in contemporary political discussion however, there has been, as Berman terms, an "ideational renaissance" (Berman, 2001, p. 247), where the notion of the idea has become significantly more examined and prioritised as a causal explanation for political events. With respect to relevant literature which contemplates much more considerably the role of the ideational, we shall assess the ways in which ideas can influence political events. In particular, we will explore political constructivist analysis and framing theory, whilst assessing case studies such as the phenomenon of globalisation, American political discourse and causal explanations of the economic performance in the Asian Tiger countries based on perceived cultural identities. It will follow that whilst more research is required in order to determine the exact causal nature of "ideas", ideas nonetheless have a much more important impact on political events than traditionally perceived. The notion of the idea has in the past has often been an inconvenience and inconsistency to the method of behaviouralist and rational choice political theorists, who have dominated the academic field. This may be as a result of, as Berman comments, the notion that "political scientists prefer to study things that they can see, measure and count and ideas seem to be the opposite- vague, amorphous and constantly evolving" (Berman, 1998, p. 16). The difficulty to empirically analyse the ideational in political science has left it to be consistently shunned and ignored as a factor in determining political events, with materialist explanations prioritised as primary causes of political events instead. As Colin Hay remarks, rational choice theorists and behaviouralists choose "parsimonious" (Hay, 2002, p. 196) theories to explain political phenomena by choosing a simpler, and arguably unrealistic, route of explanation by putting aside the subjective, qualitative ideational aspects of politics. As Philip Converse points at, ideas "have often served as primary exhibits for the doctrine that what is important to study cannot be measured, and that which can be measured is not important to study" (Converse, 1964, p. 206). Whilst it is a bold assertion to claim that all of which is quantifiable and empirical within political science is irrelevant, Converse is nonetheless correct in his declaration of the importance of ideas to politics. In more recent decades, epistemological stances in political science have evolved to promote the role of the ideational in causing political outcomes. Constructivism for example, a school of thought which has focused itself particularly in the realm of international relations, refers generally to the attitude that much of the character of international relations is socially constructed and that ultimately, political events are grounded in ideas and the social construction of ideas, rather than objectively founded in material influences. Alexander Wendt, one of the better known advocates of social constructivism puts forward two key claims of constructivist theory; firstly, "the key structures in the state system are intersubjective rather than material" (Wendt, 1994, p. 385) and secondly, that "state identities and interests are an important part constructed by social structures, rather than given exogenously to the system by human nature or domestic policies" (Wendt, 1994, p. 385). The emphasis on political phenomena as a social construction and the intersubjective role between the ideational and the material (rather than a purely idealist role) are at the essence of constructivism. Through constructivist analysis, one means by which ideas can influence political outcomes is through the nature of political discourse and the way that ideas, expressed through political rhetoric, have an independent effect in determining political behaviour. One often referenced example of the independent influence of political discourse is the example of the globalisation phenomenon. Hay asserts that "the social or discursive construction of globalisation may have an effect on political and economic dynamics independently of the empirics of globalisation itself" (Hay, 2002, p. 202). In other words, ideas based upon globalisation theory, that once had supposedly been a reflection of the empirical, material and economic phenomenon, are ultimately socially constructed and in themselves alone impact political dynamics. For example, one theory of globalisation entails the creation of a competitive taxing system, whereby nation states compete for business with multinational firms by reducing their respective corporation taxes. Within the discourse of economic globalisation, which has dominated Western political decision making in recent decades, this would make coherent and logical sense. However, whilst policy makers act within this paradigm, there is little actual evidence of this policy having a beneficially empirical effect. (Hay, 2002, p. 202) Such an example alludes to the fact that instead, ideas and discourse can really be in control of policy making rather than any empirical, economic constraint. However, it might also be overly sceptical to take the "thick" constructivist approach to claim that globalisation is a wholly socially constructed phenomenon; whilst there is little empirical evidence regarding the correlation between capital flight and corporation tax rates, it is hard to refute other hard empirical evidence of globalisation which has constrained and determined policy making; this includes the impacts of increasing world trade, the rise of multinational bodies and the increase in labour mobility on the policies of nation states. Nevertheless, such an example brings to light the fact that the ideas policy makers believe to be true and buy into can sometimes be more important than what is empirically true in determining political events. A similar observation can be made upon analysing the impact of cultural identities and their influences on political events. Campbell defines cultural identities as "historically constructed ideas that individuals or organisations have about who they are vis-à-vis others" (Campbell, 2002, p. 24). One alleged example of a cultural identity determining political outcomes is the rise of the "Asian Tiger" nations: Hong Kong, South Korea, Taiwan and Singapore. The sudden rise of these economies in the 1990s led to some political theorists placing the cause of it to the embedded "Confucian" values, which attracted the attention of many Western political commentators. The Confucian cultural identity, as Rosamond describes, "is built around the advocacy of self-control and duty to others. The value structure.remains deeply embedded in Asian societies, so that notions of 'community' and 'family' prevail over Western-style individualism" (Rosamond, 2002, p. 101). There are certainly many issues with this claim; for example, it is very difficult to empirically analyse the causal relationship in the first place. Furthermore, the claim implies a huge generalisation of Asian culture, and as Fukuyama comments: "there are huge cultural differences not only among the various countries but also among the ethnic groups that make up multicultural societies like Singapore and Malaysia." (Fukuyama, 1998) However, as Rosamond remarks: "Whether or not Confucian values matter is secondary to the two facts that some Asian politicians were able to generate public support and legitimacy around the idea of a distinctive 'Asian Way'." (Rosamond, 2002, p. 102) Whilst the claim that the alleged Confucian cultural identity embedded in Asian Tiger societies somehow determined their respective economic booms may be seen as contentious, the transformation of these "Asian Values" into a socially-constructed political discourse "to lend legitimacy to the political aims of South East Asian politicians such as Lee and Mahatir" (Rosamond, 2002, p. 105) is a lot more plausible. In particular, Fukuyama contends that the discourse of "Asian values" by politicians and commentators has been "regarded as a convenient prop" (Fukuyama, 1998) for the prolonging of authoritarian state systems at the expense of democratisation. We arrive at a similar conclusion once again: whether or not the claims of "Confucian values" are empirically valid seems arguably less important than the fact that a significant number of influential political actors believed them to be valid, in the determining of political outcomes. The analysis of framing in political science yields further demonstrations as to how ideas in policy making are essential in influencing political outcomes. John L. Campbell defines political framing as the process whereby policy makers, in order for their policies to be adopted, "strategically craft frames and use them to legitimize their policies to the public and each other." (Campbell, 2002, p. 27) Analysis of political framing has been explored particularly in the United States, chiefly with regards to the way in which the two competing political parties employ framing to successfully harness power of persuasion and influence over the electorate. In this particular context, framing can be described as "to do with choosing a language to define a debate, and more important, with fitting individual issues into the context of broader story lines" (Bai, 2005). By framing policies in grand ideological narratives which appeal to the electorate, or fellow politicians, the policies and therefore the party are more likely to be voted for. In this sense, ideas hold a powerful role in influencing the outcome of political events. The chief political correspondent of New York Times, Matt Bai, argued that the Democrats lost in the 2005 elections because the Republicans were much more capable of framing their policies in appealing ideas. (Bai, 2005) Republican Party strategist Frank Luntz published a memo entitled The 14 Words Never To Use, urging Republicans to constrain their language in order to "educate the American people" (Luntz, 2006). For example, he states that a Republican politician should never criticise "Government", but rather "Washington" because "most Americans appreciate their local government that picks up their trash, cleans their streets." whilst the term "Washington" pejoratively connotes to spending, taxation and bureaucracy. Another example involves substituting "Foreign trade" for "International Trade" as, "For many reasons unrelated to this issue, the word "foreign" conjures up negative images". Other substitutions include "Free Market Economy" for "Globalisation" and "Tax Simplification" instead of "Tax Reform". (Luntz, 2006) Such importance of framing in American politics highlights the significance of producing the correct ideas and connotations from political discourse in order to successfully pass through policies and remain in power. Whilst it might be the case that material interests motivate a political actor to push through a policy in the first place, without the policies being framed within the right ideas, the policy could fail to appeal to enough people. Moreover, the framing of political discourse can have an important influence on agenda-setting in policy making. For example, the shift in lexicon from "Tax simplification" to "Tax reform" can alter the agenda of questions posed in future debates, and therefore restructuring the nature of the issue discussed. Washington's response to the 9/11 terrorist attack presents an interesting example to this. The initial response to the September 11th attacks from the Bush administration was to frame the act as a crime; however, within hours the administration altered the framing of the event from a crime, to a war. This consequently alters the perception of the event in the minds of the public, as well as the policy makers themselves: whilst crime alludes to the idea of gaining justice through putting the criminals on trial, the connotations of war suggest military force, enemy territory and war powers being granted to Washington. (Lakoff, 2004, p. 56) Research has also looked into how presumed, subconscious and embedded paradigms which reside in the political background can constrain policy making. For example, Block puts the case forward that the "variety of extraordinarily vivid anti-statist images, metaphors, stories and analogies" (Campbell, 2002, p. 32), particularly the image of the state in America as the 'blood-sucking vampire state', has been the foundation of much of the political discourse in America, and consequently, has constrained decisions made concerning the state in America, "effectively imped[ing] discussion of alternative policy approaches that might favour increased or different forms of state economic intervention." (Campbell, 2002, p. 32) Such analysis suggests that ideas cannot only cause shifts in public policy, but can also prolong and reinforce themselves through being deeply engrained into the political discourse of a state. There is also the sense that outside the paradigm of rational choice theory, neo-classical economics and neo-realism, the assumption does not necessarily hold that political actors possess perfect information as to how to accurately fulfil their interests. Whilst such an assumption in these schools of thoughts provides parsimony, as Hay remarks, "it is ultimately unrealistic" (Hay, 2002, p. 209). In his view, there exists a gap of information between the political actor and his/her environment. If actors lack perfect information, then through using ideas, "they have to interpret the world in which they find themselves in order to orient themselves strategically towards it." (Hay, 2002, p. 209) This particular interpretation of the way ideas function is often compared to the role of "road maps", "that help guide political actors through confused and uncertain periods" (Goldstein, 1993) towards the end result of determining a policy. McNamara exemplifies this role of ideas in policy making in reference to the EU's imposition of monetarist policies in the early 1990s which, "at a time of great uncertainty about the workings of global and domestic economies. made a compelling case for curing the ills of stagflation, [and] provided a template and legitimizing framework for a new economic strategy." (McNamara, 1998, pp. 64-65) Nonetheless, McNamara does concede that the imposition of monetarist policies was also determined by other factors too, for example, the influence of Germany's advocacy of the policy as an economically and politically powerful nation within the EU. (Berman, 2001, p. 235) Another example includes Ronald Regan's pioneering of the 'Laffer Curve', the economic theory entailing that a fall in income tax would give rise to an increase in tax revenue, as a lower tax rate would promote entrepreneurialism. However, the economic idea failed to realise itself in empirical data as "the result was a net depreciation in revenue and a doubling in the size of the fiscal deficit in the space of two years" (Hay, 2002, p. 210). Political actors clearly do, therefore, not have perfect knowledge of their surroundings, and employ ideas to interpret and simplify the world around them, leading to policies with varying grades of success. In this essay, we certainly have established that ideas have a powerful influence in determining political events. We firstly recognised that, in light of the examples of globalisation and Confucian cultural identity, the ideas in which influential policy makers buy into can often matter more than the actual empirical truth of political or economic phenomena. Furthermore, with respect to American political discourse, we have also established that the manner by which policies or events are framed to promote certain ideas in favour of others is essential in that policy being passed, or a said party remaining in power. Finally, we also have concluded that ideas are an important means by which political actors with imperfect information can interpret and make sense of their environment, and guide them in creating policies. Whilst we have not established how ideas exactly fit in and function with relation to materialist causes, this arguably does not matter. As Berman notes: "ideas.can be both dependent and independent variables. Neither role need be considered dominant in the abstract; scholars should simply differentiate between them and investigate which is appropriate to the project at hand." (Berman, 2001, p. 233) What we can conclude nonetheless is that the causal nature of ideas in political science is fundamentally very difficult to analyse through empiricism, and more research ought to be carried out in this relatively newer field of political analysis.