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The force of prescriptions

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  22 May 2009

Friedrich Kratochwil
Friedrich Kratochwil
Affiliation:
Assistant Professor of Political Science at Columbia University, New York City.
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Abstract

How do norms influence choices in social life? Conceptual distinctions among types of norms and suggestions in the work of Hobbes, Hume, and Durkheim help us investigate in greater detail the “woolly” concept of regimes in international relations. When we disaggregate the “set of explicit and implicit norms, rules, and decisionmaking procedures” in a given issue area and focus on the conceptual links between rules, principles (norms), and actions, we gain an understanding of the role of norms in social life that is more comprehensive than the understanding provided by traditional accounts. Furthermore, placing the present regime discussion within wider philosophical traditions enables us to develop a more critical approach to the building of theory in the social sciences, since the use of norms as explanatory devices challenges the predominant positivist outlook in several important respects.

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Articles
Information
International Organization , Volume 38 , Issue 4 , Autumn 1984 , pp. 685 - 708
Copyright
Copyright © The IO Foundation 1984

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References

1. For an influential neorealist treatise see Waltz, Kenneth, Theory of International Politics (Reading, Mass.: Addison-Wesley, 1979)Google Scholar. The standard reference for the regime approach is Krasner, Stephen, ed., International Regimes (Ithaca: Cornell University Press, 1983)Google Scholar.

2. For an elaboration of this criticism see Susan Strange, “Cave! Hie Dragones,” in Krasner, International Regimes.

3. This is the consensus definition adopted by the contributors to Krasner, International Regimes.

4. Articles by Arthur Stein and Robert Keohane in ibid.

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34. The fundamental distinction between rules and principles is that rules “apply in all or nothing fashion” while principles “have the dimension of weight and importance,” and thus their application usually requires trade-offs between competing values. For a further elaboration see Dworkin, Taking Rights Seriously, chaps. 2 and 3.

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37. For a more extended discussion of this point see Mayberry, Thomas, “Laws, Moral Laws and God's Commands,” Journal of Value Inquiry 4 (Winter 1970), pp. 287–92.CrossRefGoogle Scholar

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