Society at Larg

Name: Venetia Jacobs                                                                                    Tutor: N.Lukhele

Student number : g16j3786

Politics tutorial( 21/09/2016)

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Theories help us with understanding: (l) the social and cultural contexts in which situations exist, (2) the connections between those contexts, (3) the social worlds that people create as they participate in in the day to day activity, and lastly the experiences of individuals and groups associated with those social worlds. Theories expose and challenge the exploitive use of ideologies.  We study and apply knowledge about life by using theories (Dunne, & Schmidt,2008).

Statism is an important concept when understanding realist theory because for realists, the state is the main subject and sovereignty is its distinguishing characteristics. The meaning of the sovereign state is inseparably bound with the idea of force. In internal sphere illustrates the relationship between violence and the state (Dunne, & Schmidt,2008).

Survival is an important concept when understanding realist theory because the pre-eminent goal for realist is survival. Although survival itself is ambiguous, realists focuses is to on the accumulation of power. Survival is made to be a preconditioned to attain all other goals, whether it involves conquest or merely independence (Dunne, & Schmidt,2008).

Self-help is an important concept when understanding realist theory because realist tradition has deeper understanding of the international system within states that coexist. The main differences between domestic and international orders is in in their structure. In the domestic polity, citizens do not have to defend themselves. In the international system, there is no high authority to prevent and counter the use of force. Security is then realized through self-help ( Dunne, & Schmidt,2008).

 Liberals argue that democracy and economic interdependence are important in the achievement of peace in the international system because economic liberalization promoted by Western financial institutions, particularly in economically impoverished countries, frequently comes into conflict with the norms of democracy and human rights.  Hence why liberals argue for democracy and economic independence because through economic independence democracy is achieved as they are co-dependent on one other (Dunne,2008)