Reading 'Socialization and hegemonic power' as to why deligitimising their own hegemon's power is the most stupid dangerous action the WOKE have/are perpetrating against their own Biology/Culture Ideology
G. John Ikenberry and Charles A. Kupchan
Most historical
ages are marked by the presence of great powers, nations capable of dominating
the course of international politics. An ongoing task of scholarship is to explore the nature of the shadow that hegemonic nations cast. How
do hegemons assert control over other nations within the international system?
Through what mechanisms does control get established, and by what processes does it erode?
How is compliance achieved, and how is it maintained?
Most observers
would argue that the manipulation of material incentives, the use of threats and promises to alter the preferences
of leaders in secondary nations-is the dominant form through which hegemonic
power is exercised. Power is directly related to the command of material
resources. Acquiescence is the result of coercion. Inducements and sanctions
are used by the hegemon to ensure that secondary states prefer cooperation to noncooperation.
But there is also a
more subtle component of hegemonic power, one that works at the level of substantive
beliefs rather than material
payoffs. Acquiescence is the result of the socialization
of leaders in secondary nations. Elites in secondary
states buy into and internalize norms that are articulated by the
hegemon and therefore pursue
policies consistent with the hegemon's notion of international order. The exercise of power-and
hence the mechanism through which compliance is achieved-involves the projection by the hegemon of a set of norms and their embrace by leaders in other nations. The goal of
this article is to develop
an understanding of socialization in
We gratefully acknowledge valuable comments
and suggestions from Hayward Alker,
Henry Bienen, George Downs,
Michael Doyle, John Lewis Gaddis, Fred Greenstein, Steph
Haggard, John Hall, Robert
Jervis, Peter Katzenstein, Robert Keohane, Stephen
Krasner, M. J. Peterson, David Rapkin, John Ruggie, Jack Snyder,
and Steve Walt. Research for this article was supported by the Pew Charitable Trusts Program on Integrating Economics and National Security and by the
Center of International Studies, Princeton University.
International Organization 44, 3, Summer 1990
© 1990 by the World Peace Foundation and the Massachusetts Institute of Technology
the international
system and to define the conditions
under which it comes about and can function effectively as a source of power. Socialization is an
important element of power, but we have meager analytic tools with which to understand the mechanisms and conditions of its operation. Our purpose
is not to diminish the
importance of the manipulation of material incentives as a source of hegemonic power. Rather, it is to develop the means to identify and explain a different aspect of hegemonic power in
which acquiescence emerges from the
diffusion of a set of normative ideals.
We begin by
developing the notion of socialization
within an international context, drawing on the literature on
socialization and learning at the domestic level. We then elaborate on the mechanisms through which norms and beliefs become embedded in the
elite communities of secondary states. We next set forth and examine three
hypotheses concerning the conditions under which socialization comes about. The
first hypothesis is that socialization occurs primarily after wars and
political crises, periods marked by international turmoil and restructuring as
well as the fragmentation of ruling coalitions and legitimacy crises at the
domestic level. The simultaneity of international and domestic instability
creates the conditions conducive to socialization. At the international level,
the emerging hegemon articulates a set of normative principles in order to facilitate the construction of an order
conducive to its interests. At the domestic level, crisis creates an
environment in which elites seek alternatives to existing norms that have been
discredited by events and in which
new norms offer opportunities for political
gains and coalitional realignment. The second hypothesis is that elite (as
opposed to mass) receptivity to the norms articulated by the hegemon is essential
to the socialization process. Norms may first take root among the populace, but
they must then spread to the elite level if they are to have important effects
on state behavior. Coalitional realignment most often serves as the mechanism through which
norms move from the public into the elite community. The third hypothesis is
that when socialization does occur, it comes about primarily in the wake of the coercive exercise of power.
That is, socialization is distinct
from, but does not occur independently
of, power manifest as the manipulation of material incentives. Material inducement triggers
the socialization process, but socialization nevertheless leads to outcomes
that are not explicable simply in terms of the
exercise of coercive power. These hypotheses are explored in the
historical case studies of U.S. diplomacy after World Wars I and II and the British colonial experience in
India and Egypt.1
I. The
groundwork for this article was laid out in an earlier
essay that sought to deepen
our understanding of the nature of legitimacy in the international system. See G. John Ikenberry and Charles A. Kupchan,
"The Legitimation
of Hegemonic Power," in David Rapkin, ed., World Leadership and Hegemony, vol. 5of International Political Economy Yearbook (Boulder, Colo.: Lynne Rienner,
forthcoming). Some of the historical
material contained in the present article draws on our earlier essay.
Power as coercion and power as socialization
There are two basic ways
in which a hegemonic nation can exercise power and secure the acquiescence of
other nations.2 The first is by manipulating material
incentives. Through threats of punishment or promises of reward, the
hegemon alters the political or economic incentives facing other states. This
manipulation of material incentives induces policy change that is congenial with hegemonic order. In
effect, the hegemon exercises power by using sanctions and inducements to change the costs and benefits that other states face in pursuing particular
policies. The second basic way in which a hegemonic nation can exercise power
is by altering the substantive beliefs of
leaders in other nations. Hegemonic control emerges when foreign elites buy
into the hegemon's vision of international order and accept it as their
own-that is, when they internalize the norms and value orientations espoused by
the hegemon and accept its normative claims
about the nature of the international system. These norms and value
orientations occupy the analytic dimension
that lies between deep philosophical beliefs about human
nature and more narrow beliefs about what set of policies will maximize
short-term interests,3 and
they therefore serve to guide state behavior and shape the agenda from which
elites choose specific policies.4 Power is thus exercised
through a process of socialization in which the norms and value orientations of
leaders in secondary states change and more closely reflect those of the dominant
state. Under these circumstances, acquiescence is
2. Some scholars have made general
distinctions among political, economic, and ideological aspects of power.
See Michael Mann, The Sources
of Social Power, vol. I, A History of Power
from the Beginning to A.D. 1760 (Cambridge:
Cambridge University Press,
1986), especially.
pp. 22-28; and Kenneth Boulding, The Three Faces of Power
(Newbury Park, Calif.: Sage, 1989).
3. See Alexander George, "The 'Operational
Code': A Neglected Approach to the Study of Political Leaders and Decision
Making," International Studies Quarterly 13 (June 1969), pp. 190-222. George argues that the operational
code consists of two levels of
beliefs: deep philosophical beliefs and
instrumental beliefs. Our notion
of norms is similar
to George's category of instrumental
beliefs. For further discussion of this level of beliefs
and how to measure them, see Charles A. Kupchan, "France and. the Quandary
of Empire, 1870-1939," paper
presented at the annual meeting of the American Political Science Association,
Atlanta, 1989. To clarify the presentation, we distinguish among norms, value orientations, interests, and preferences in the following way. Norms are general principles upon which a certain
vision of international order is based. Value
orientations are norm-based attitudes toward specific policy issues and types
of behavior. Interests are the broad objectives of policy, such as prosperity,
political stability, and security. Preferences are the ordering of alternative
courses of action or policy choices.
4. As discussed below in the case studies, the content of norms changes
over time. During the nineteenth century, for example, British hegemony in the European
system was facilitated by principles of free trade. British domination in certain colonial
areas, most notably
India, was similarly facilitated by the importation and spread of liberalism. During
the post-World War II era,
the U.S. hegemonic system has been infused with norms
of liberal multilateralism and democratic government.
achieved by the transmission of
norms and reshaping of value orientations and not simply by the manipulation of material incentives.5
These two ways
of exercising hegemonic power are mutually reinforcing and frequently difficult to disentangle. Yet it is useful to distinguish between them analytically
because they rely on quite different mechanisms and suggest quite different
notions of the underlying fabric and durability of hegemonic power. In
theoretical terms, broadening our understanding of hegemonic power to include
socialization will lead to
new insights into how order
emerges and evolves in the international system. The socialization of elites
into the hegemonic order leads to a
consolidation of hegemonic power; rule based on might is enhanced by rule based
on right. Furthermore, it is less costly: the hegemon can expend fewer economic
and military resources to secure acquiescence because
there is a more fundamental correspondence of values and interests. This added dimension of
hegemonic power can also explain why the ordering principles and norms of a
given system are not isomorphic with changes in the relative
distribution of military and economic capability within that system. The norms and value orientations
of secondary states may be altered
before a substantial decline in the hegemon's
wealth and military strength occurs, or they may outlast periods of
hegemonic decline and thereby perpetuate the system "beyond its
time." In short, socialization may be a key component in understanding the
functioning of and change within hegemonic systems.
Demonstrating empirically the importance of socialization is more difficult. The core of the problem is that
the outcomes we would expect to see if coercion were solely at work may not
differ substantially from those associated with socialization. In inducing
secondary states to adopt certain policies, the hegemon may in fact resort to
both coercion and socialization to achieve the same end. It is therefore
difficult to determine the extent to which a specific outcome follows from
either the manipulation of material incentives or the alteration of substantive
beliefs. Outcomes that can be explained solely in terms of material inducement
do not undermine the case for socialization. On the contrary, it is only
because concern about material forms of power
has tended to dominate the study of hegemonic order that
the burden of proof falls on those
arguing that socialization has consequential effects on outcomes. We suggest that no single
paradigm should be accorded this predominance if only because it impairs a more nuanced inquiry
into the relative weights that should be assigned to socialization and
material inducement in explaining
outcomes.
5. A similar distinction between types of
acquiescence (or "acceptance") is made by Mann: "pragmatic acceptance, where the individual complies because
he perceives no realistic alternative, and normative
acceptance, where the individual internalizes the moral expectations of the ruling class and views his own inferior position as legitimate." See Michael Mann, "The Social Cohesion of
Liberal Democracy," American
Sociological Review 35 (June 1970), pp. 423-39.
Another problem in
demonstrating empirically the implications of norm change is that, in
methodological terms, the importance of socialization is easiest to observe when the hegemon's preponderance
of material resources is declining.
During periods in which the hegemon's coercive capacities are no longer
sufficient to explain the perpetuation of hegemonic order, the importance of
norms becomes most evident. Because the purpose of this article is to understand when and
how socialization works in the early stages
of interaction between a hegemon and secondary states,
probing more deeply into how socialization affects outcomes later in the trajectory of
hegemonic systems goes beyond the scope of our inquiry.
Despite these
methodological problems, our case studies do indicate that socialization has
played an important role in shaping hegemonic orders. During the closing years
of World War I, President Wilson's normative appeal to the European left
markedly influenced the terms of the
Versailles Treaty. If Wilson had succeeded more fully in implanting among
European elites the ideas embodied in the Fourteen Points, the postwar order
would likely have looked dramatically
different. After World War II, U.S.
officials were more successful in embedding a set of norms among
European elites. By convincing the Europeans to depart from notions of
colonialism and economic nationalism, the United States was able to forge a
normative consensus around which the postwar order took shape. An examination
of British rule in India and Egypt also reveals the importance of
socialization. Britain's ability to penetrate and reshape Indian political
culture facilitated British rule and meant that the period of British hegemony
had a lasting effect on Indian politics. In Egypt, where Britain relied more
heavily on coercive leadership, British hegemony was more fragile and had a
less profound impact on
Egyptian political culture.
Developing theory of socialization in international relations
Hegemonic
order built on inducements and threats depends exclusively on the hegemon's
control of preponderant material resources. A variety of resources may be
useful in altering the incentives of other nations. For example, economic
sanctions can be imposed
or lifted, foreign aid or military
support can be offered or withheld, military intervention can be threatened or
used, and international market power can be wielded by allowing or denying
foreign access to the hegemon's own domestic economy.6 Taken together, the constitutive elements of hegemonic
power include military
6.
For a discussion of the use of international market power, see Scott C. James
and David
A. Lake, "The Second Face of Hegemony: Britain's
Repeal of the Com Laws and the
American Walker Tariff of 1846," International Organization 43 (Winter 1989), pp. 1-29.
capabilities;
control over raw materials, markets, and capital; and competitive advantages in highly
valued goods.7
Few scholars,
even those who stress the centrality of coercive forms of hegemony, are willing to leave it at this. Robert Keohane, for example,
notes that "theories of hegemony should seek not only to analyze dominant powers' decisions to
engage in rule-making and rule-enforcement, but also to explore why secondary
states defer to the leadership of the hegemon'' and stresses that these
theories "need to account
for the legitimacy of hegemonic
regimes and for the coexistence of cooperation. "8 Likewise, Robert Gilpin argues that the
"governance" of the international system is in part maintained by the
prestige and moral leadership of the hegemonic power. While the authority of
the hegemonic power is ultimately established by military and economic
supremacy, "the position of the dominant power may be supported by
ideological, religious, or other values common to a set of states·."9 Such arguments suggest the importance of nonmaterial resources in the creation and maintenance of hegemonic order.10
Other scholars have noted that power can be exercised by shaping the norms
and value orientations within
which policy is conducted. Robert
Cox, working within the Gramscian tradition, argues that hegemonic
structures are sustained by
"universal norms, institutions, and mechanisms which lay down general
rules of behavior for states and for those forces of civil
society that act across national boundaries." 11 Hegemony, according
to this view,
7. See Robert 0. Keohane, After Hegemony:
Cooperation and Discord in the World Political Economy (Princeton, N.J.: Princeton University Press, 1984), p.
32; and Stephen D. Krasner, "American Policy and Global Economic
Stability," in William P. Avery
and David P. Rapkin, eds., America in a Changing World Political Economy (New York: Longman, 1982), p. 32. The United States
after World War II provides the premier case of the coercive potential of a remarkably diversified resource
portfolio. "American leaders were able to bring into play a very
wide range of resources with few opportunity costs for the United
States," argues Krasner.
"American threats were credible because the United States would not lose
much if they were carried out. American leaders could usually construct a link that would enable them to
compel other actors to alter
their policy. Inducements could be offered because the United States had
resources that others needed much more
than they were needed by the
United States."
8. Keohane, After Hegemony, p. 39.
9. Robert Gilpin,
War and Change in World Politics
(New York: Cambridge
University Press,
1981), p. 34.
IO. A variety of efforts have been
made to develop more sophisticated
models of hegemonic power, giving precision to its mechanisms and
dynamics. Snidal outlines three forms of hegemony: that which is benign and
exercised by persuasion; that which
is benign but exercised by coercion; and that which is coercive and
exploitative. See Duncan Snidal, "Hegemonic Stability Theory
Revisited," International Organization 39 (Autumn 1985), pp. 579-614. Hirsch and Doyle note
three types of hegemonic power: cooperative leadership, hegemonic regime, and imperialism. See Fred Hirsch
and Michael Doyle,
Alternatives to Monetary
Disorder (New York: McGraw Hill,
1977), p. 27.
11. Robert W. Cox, Production, Power and World Order (New
York: Columbia University Press, 1987),
p. 172. See
also two works by Stephen Gill: "Hegemony, Consensus, and
Trilateralism," Review of
International Studies 12
(July 1986), pp. 205-21;
and "American Hegemony:
Its Limits and Prospects in the Reagan Era," Millennium: Journal of International Studies 15 (Winter 1986), pp. 3tl-36.
is the outgrowth
of the intertwining of socioeconomic, political, and ideological structures, all of which are rooted in a particular mode of
production. This complex set of
structures limits the bounds
of what is understood to be legitimate policy choice, thereby
securing the continuing dominance of the hegemon.
These
arguments, made by scholars working in otherwise very different theoretical
traditions, acknowledge a component of power that is not reducible to the
coercive capacities of the hegemonic nation. The ability to generate shared
beliefs in the acceptability or legitimacy of a particular international
order-that is, the ability to forge a consensus among national elites on the
normative underpinnings of order-is an important if
elusive dimension of hegemonic
power.
Underlying this
view is the notion of legitimate domination advanced by Max Weber. Although
Weber is concerned with the exercise
of power within the nation-state, his analysis is also relevant to the exercise of power between nation-states. Weber argues that there
are systematic incentives for rulers
to organize power in ways that establish or preserve the legitimacy of
government institutions and decision making. "Experience shows that in no instance does domination voluntarily limit itself to the appeal to material
or affectual or ideal motives as a basis for its continuance. In addition every
such system attempts to establish and to cultivate the belief in its
legitimacy."12 Weber notes a seemingly
universal need for those who wield power to exercise that power as
legitimate domination.
Weber and other scholars
argue that the legitimacy of
power has its foundation in a set of shared
beliefs in a normative order. Rulers enjoy legitimacy
when the values that they espouse correspond with the values of those they rule. "If binding
decisions are legitimate," Jurgen Habermas argues, "that is, if they can be made independently of
the concrete exercise of force and of the manifest threat of sanctions, and can
be regularly implemented even against the interests of those affected, they
must be considered as the fulfillment of recognized norms.'' 13 It is the common acceptance of a consensual normative order that binds
ruler and ruled and legitimates power.
In general
terms, we conceptualize socialization as a process of learning in which norms and ideals are transmitted
from one party to another.14 In specific terms related to hegemonic power, we conceptualize it as the process through which national leaders
internalize the norms and value orientations espoused by the hegemon
and, as a consequence, become
socialized into
12. Max Weber, Economy and Society, vol.
I, edited by Guenther Roth and Claus Willich (Berkeley: University of California Press,
1978), p. 213.
13. Jurgen Habennas,
Legitimation Crisis (Boston: Beacon Press, 1975), p. IOI.
14. Our notion of socialization corresponds closely with that in the literature on political
socialization. As Sigel states, "Political socialization refers
to the learning process by which political norms and behaviors acceptable to
an ongoing political system
are transmitted from generation to generation." See R. Sigel,
"Assumptions About
the Learning of Political Values," Annals of the American Academy
of Political and Social Sciences, vol. 361, 1%5, p. I.
the community
formed by the hegemon
and other nations
accepting its leadership
position.15 The vision of international order articulated by the
hegemon comes to possess
a "quality of 'oughtness.' "16 In this way, socialization can lead to the consolidation of the hegemon' s position and to acquiescence
among the states participating within the
system.17
How socialization works
Socialization
can occur through three mechanisms: normative persuasion, external inducement, and internal reconstruction.
When
socialization occurs through normative
persuasion, the hegemon is able to secure the compliance of secondary
states without resorting to material sanctions and inducements. The hegemon
relies instead on ideological persuasion and transnational learning through
various forms of direct contact
with elites in these states, including
contact via diplomatic channels, cultural exchanges, and foreign study. The
elites then internalize the hegemon's norms
and move to adopt new state policies which are compatible with those
of the hegemon and which produce cooperative outcomes. In
this formulation, then, socialization occurs independently of and prior to
changes in policy; this is a case of "beliefs before acts."
Acquiescence follows from shifts in the values and norms held by elites in
secondary states. The causal chain is as follows: normative persuasion norm change policy change
(cooperation through legitimate
domination).
When
socialization occurs through external
inducement, the hegemon initially uses economic
and military incentives to induce smaller
states to change their policies. This manipulation of
the preferences of elites secures compliance
through coercion. It is
only after secondary states have adjusted
their policies to accord with those of the hegemon
that the normative
principles
15. Our notion of socialization differs from
that of Waltz. In Waltz's theory, socialization refers to a process through
which actors come to conform to the structural norms of the international system.
It is a process that "limits and molds" the behavior of states in ways
that accord with the imperatives and constraints of international
structures. See Kenneth Waltz, Theory of International Politics (New
York: Wiley, 1979), pp. 74-76.
We refer to socialization
as a process through which the value orientations
of a leading state are transmitted to
elites in other nations, regardless of the structural setting.
16. Richard Merelman, "Learning and
Legitimacy," American Political
Science Review 60 (September
1966), p. 548. See also
Alexander L. George, "Domestic Constraints on Regime Change in U.S. Foreign Policy: The Need for Policy Legitimacy,"
in Ole Holst el al., eds., Change in the
International System (Boulder, Colo.: Westview Press, 1980), pp. 233-62;
and Thomas Trout, "Rhetoric Revisited: Political Legitimacy and the Cold
War," International Studies
Quarterly 19 (September 1975), pp. 2S1-84.
17. Our notion
of socialiµtion in the international
system has a clear parallel lo Durkheim's "conscience collective"-a body of beliefs and
values upon which moral consensus in domestic
societies is based. The conscience collective, as Giddens suggests, provides domestic cohesion and conformity through "the emotional and intellectual hold which these beliefs and
values exert over the perspectives of the individual." See Anthony
Giddens, ed., Emile Durkheim: Selected
Writings (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1972), p. 5. We maintain that the emergence of
shared norms and beliefs performs a similar role in the international context,
facilitating cooperation and cohesion among sovereign states.
underlying the hegemon's policies come to be embraced
as rightful· by
the elites. Belief in the normative underpinnings of the system emerges
gradually as elites seek to bring their policies and value orientations into line. This is a case of "acts before beliefs."
The causal chain is as follows: external inducement - policy
change (cooperation through coercion)_ norm change (cooperation through
legitimate domination).
Policy coercion
can lead to socialization for three main reasons. First, entering into a subsidiary relationship with a hegemon
could create domestic political problems for those in
power and opportunities for those not in power. The public of the secondary state may associate compliant
behavior with imperial manipulation and weakness on the part of its own
leaders. Elites in power can
circumvent this problem by basing their
participation in the hegemonic system on normative
claims. Alternatively, elites not in power,
especially during the periods of political flux that surround major shifts in
coalitional alignment or foreign policy, can espouse a new set of norms to
challenge the authority of existing elites and take the opportunity to form new ruling
coalitions. This becomes
a particularly compelling political strategy
if the elites in power continue to
embrace traditional norms that are at odds with the new policies they have
adopted. In other words, elites may embrace
and espouse the norms articulated by the hegemon for instrumental reasons, either to minimize
the potential domestic costs of compliant behavior or to take advantage of elite restructuring to build new
coalitions.
Second, psychological pressures
can induce a change in beliefs. Elites
in secondary states may feel some degree
of cognitive dissonance because the policies they implement do not correspond
fully with their beliefs.18 This dissonance can be reduced if the
norms that guide the policies come to correspond more closely with those policies.
Alternatively, as Daryl Bern's
self-perception theory contends,
individuals may feel a need to
adopt beliefs that explain
their actions, that give meaning and justification to their behavior. 19 This search for compatibility between
policies and normative orientation drives forward
the socialization process.
Third, the web
of interactions created by participation in the hegemonic system can, through a
gradual process of learning and adjustment, induce elites to buy into the normative
underpinnings of that system.20 Through
18.
Merelman, "Learning and Legitimacy."
19. For an application of this theory to
international relations, see Deborah Larson, The Origins of Containment: A
Psychological &planation (Princeton,
N.J.: Princeton University Press, 1985), pp.
42-50.
20. A related process, involving the spread of
policy-relevant knowledge, is described by Haas as "consensual
knowledge." See Ernst Haas, "Why
Collaborate? Issue-Linkage
and International Regimes," World
Politics 32 (April 1980), pp.
357-405. More generally, the literature on regimes addresses how norms and
procedures guide state behavior. This literature, however, focuses more on how
norms facilitate cooperation than on how norms emerge and take root among
relevant states. Our notion of socialization may shed light on the processes
through which regimes emerge. For a general review of the literature, see
Stephan Haggard and Beth A. Simmons, "Theories of International
Regimes," International Organization
41 (Summer 1987), pp. 491-517.
frequent
participation in the institutions erected by the hegemon, elites in secondary
states are exposed to and may eventually embrace the norms and
value orientations that those institutions embody. This form of socialization
has been particularly prevalent during the period of U.S. hegemony because of
the proliferation of formal
international organizations erected to facilitate
policy coordination.
Socialization can also occur through internal reconstruction. In this
formulation, the hegemon directly intervenes in the secondary state and
transforms its domestic political institutions. Such extensive intervention can occur only in the aftermath
of war or as a result of "formal" empire-that is, it can only occur when the victorious hegemon occupies the defeated
secondary state and assumes responsibility for its reconstruction or when an imperial power colonizes a peripheral state. In either case, the hegemon imports normative
principles about domestic and international political order, often embodying these principles in
institutional structures and in constitutions or other written proclamations. The process of socialization takes place as elites in the secondary
state become accustomed to these institutions
and gradually come to accept them as their own. The causal chain is as
follows: internal reconstruction - policy change (through imposition) - norm change (cooperation through
legitimate domination).
When socialization works
Our first
hypothesis is that socialization serves as an effective instrument of hegemonic
power during critical historical periods in which international change
coincides with domestic crisis in secondary states. As indicated above,
socialization is most likely to occur shortly after war or imperial
penetration. It is during these periods that the hegemon
seeks to adjust to
a new constellation of international power and to consolidate its dominant
position. It is also during these periods that both defeated and victorious
secondary states must cope with discredited elites, domestic fragmentation, and
the task of political and economic reconstruction. Stated differently, there are two necessary conditions for
socialization to occur. First, the hegemon must be seeking to recast the
international order in a way that is more compatible with its interests. As
part of its effort to shape the international system, the hegemon must actively
attempt to alter the normative orientation of elites in secondary states and,
in doing so, must articulate a clear set of normative claims about the international order. Second,
domestic conditions in secondary states must make the elites receptive to the
importation of new ideas and normative claims about state behavior. This
receptivity is most pronounced during periods of domestic political turmoil in
which the legitimacy of existing elites is threatened. Socialization
and the emergence of legitimate domination at the international level are thus
integrally linked to legitimacy at
the domestic level.
Our second
hypothesis is that socialization occurs only when normative change takes place
within the elite community. Although normative claims articulated by the
hegemon may take root in the public at large, it is ruling elites that must
embrace these claims if they are to have a long-term and consequential impact
on the behavior of secondary states. While public opinion can influence elite
restructuring, it is through the dynamics of elite politics and
coalition-building that socialization takes
place.
Our third
hypothesis is that even though socialization is a component of power that works
at the level of beliefs, it is integrally related to material components of
power inasmuch as it occurs primarily after war and the restructuring of
material incentives and opportunities at the domestic level. This means that
normative persuasion alone is insufficient to
drive the socialization process. Rather,
elites are driven
to embrace the norms articulated by the hegemon for more
instrumental reasons: to further
coalitional realignment and restore domestic legitimacy and to bring
beliefs into line with policies that have been adopted
following hegemonic coercion
or institutional
reconstruction. Material incentives and opportunities for political advancement
thus play a crucial role in making elites susceptible to the socializing
efforts of the hegemon.
Three
additional theoretical concerns, though not cast as testable propositions, also warrant mention. First, the degree to
which socialization takes
place depends, at least to some extent,
on the intrinsic qualities of
the norms and ideas being articulated by the hegemon. British liberalism, for example, is for ethical and moral reasons likely to take root more readily among elites in secondary states than, say, Naziism. Of relevance in this regard is not
only the intrinsic appeal of a set of ideas but also the conceptual
distance or gap that separates
proposed norms from those existing in the elite community. How far is the hegemon asking
secondary elites to move? Will the adoption of new norms put elites in a
position to build new coalitions, or will
it push them to the fringe of the political community? Such considerations will color the appeal of a new set of
norms and will therefore affect the extent to which they take root
in secondary states.
Second, it is important
to recognize that socialization is a two-way
process. Interaction can affect not only the normative orientation of
elites in the secondary state but also that of elites in the hegemonic state. If hegemonic elites find that their initial efforts
at socialization are rebuffed, they may rework the set of principles upon which
they are attempting to base a new international order. Alternatively, elites from both hegemonic and secondary states
may engage in a process of compromise and together reshape the conceptions of a desirable normative order.
The case studies
discussed below provide numerous instances in which the hegemon's
initial formulation of order was modified through
interaction with elites in secondary
states.
Third,
although socialization usually facilitates cooperation, it can also lead to discord between the hegemon
and the socialized secondary
states.
Ideas are by no
means static in nature: once implanted among elites in secondary states,
they may follow a trajectory of their own and combine with preexisting
norms to produce orientations and policies that are at odds with the hegemon's aspirations.
The surge of anti-imperialism that eventually
led to the demise of the British empire, for example, was rooted in the same liberal notions of justice and
representative government that
initially served to facilitate
British rule. Socialization can also lead to discord when the hegemon finds it necessary to pursue policies that are at odds with the norms it initially articulated.
Under these circumstances, elites in secondary states may question the
sincerity and credibility of the hegemon's normative program. The United States faced this predicament during the 1960s and 1970s: after decades of persuading the Europeans to abandon empire and uphold the
right of all nations to self-determination, the United States began to pursue a
more interventionist policy toward the Third
World.
Examining the
earlier-mentioned hypotheses through historical case studies and assessing the role of socialization in the exercise
of hegemonic power entail thorny methodological problems. Providing
evidence that the elites of hegemonic nations are concerned with
legitimating their position presents few difficulties. The papers, memoirs, and
policy memoranda of British officials in
the nineteenth century and U.S.
officials in the twentieth century contain frequent allusions to both the need
to articulate a set of norms that legitimate their designs for international order and the need to socialize
other states into a community bound by shared norms and values. Identifying the
process of socialization within secondary nations is a far more difficult
task. The process of discerning and measuring shifts in substantive beliefs is
difficult when dealing
with isolated individuals and is even
more problematic when dealing
with diffuse elite communities. The normative orientation of a ruling elite is not often clearly articulated, and even if
it is possible to show that norms
change over time, it is difficult to determine which mechanisms are at work. To
do so requires a nuanced reading of
history and efforts to infer beliefs from statements and behavior. These
obstacles should be kept in mind as we examine the historical materials.
Historical cases studies
We now turn to several empirical case studies
to examine our notion of socialization in more depth and to test our initial
propositions about the mechanisms through which and the conditions under which
socialization functions effectively as
a source of power in international relations.21
21. Several considerations informed our
selection of case studies. We were concerned primarily with understanding how and when socialization takes place, rather
than with assessing the extent to which socialization affects
outcomes. Accordingly, we focused on the early stages of
interaction between a hegemon and secondary states.
We also attempted to select a
range
U.S. diplomacy and the end of World War I:
Woodrow Wilson and collective security
The negotiations leading to the end of World War I and the drafting of the Versailles Treaty provide a unique
opportunity to study the problem of international socialization. Few, if any, instances of international
diplomacy were as steeped in argument about ideals and a normative world order
as President Wilson's peacemaking efforts between 1917 and 1919. Wilson's peace
program was motivated by a desire to discredit and discard the old diplomacy
that he believed led to the outbreak of the war. He proposed that
secret diplomacy, balances of power, and trade barriers be replaced by a system
of collective security based on popular control of foreign policy, disarmament,
free trade, and a community of nations united by the moral and ideological principles of progressive democracy. In this case, the spread of Wilsonian norms was not
preceded by the extension into Europe of U.S. military and economic power. This affords us the opportunity to examine the spread of norms in an international
community in which no single
nation claimed to be in a position of clear economic, military, or ideological
dominance.
The terms of the Versailles Treaty and the establishment of
the League of Nations indicate that
Wilsonian norms, at least to some extent, did shape Allied conceptions of the
postwar order. Nevertheless, the unwillingness of British and French
governments to acquiesce to a number of Wilson's requests-that war reparations
be kept to a minimum, that Germany not be occupied, that general disarmament be
pursued, and that minorities be granted
self-determination-is indicative of
European resistance to principles central to Wilson's notion of liberal peace
and collective security. In this case, we argue that there were two main
reasons why socialization did not take place
on a more
thorough basis. First, while the public,
particularly in Britain, did show considerable enthusiasm for
Wilson's program, elites were far less receptive. This was largely because
military success in 1918 confirmed the stability of incumbent conservative
coalitions in both Britain and France, thereby preventing a domestic political
crisis that would have led to the fragmentation and realignment of coalitions. Second,
because of continuing
U.S. isolationism, Wilson's
program was not backed up by offers of
of historical cases
that would allow us to probe the different mechanisms through which
socialization takes place.
In Britain and France after World War 11, socialization occurred through the thick network of political, economic, and military
ties that emerged between Western Europe and
the United States. In Germany and Japan, the United States
resorted to military occupation and explicit reconstruction of domestic institutions. The cases of India and Egypt allowed us to examine examples of colonial penetration. We were also careful to pick instances of both successful and unsuccessful
efforts at socialization in order to enhance the analytic value of comparative
analysis. Inasmuch as work in this area is relatively underdeveloped, we consider
these cases to serve as "plausibility probes" in an effort
to formulate and test initial
hypotheses about the process of
socialization in international relations.
economic or military
assistance. However appealing
the program may have been
in normative terms, the absence of both political and material incentives
dampened its appeal to elites.
Even a cursory
glance at the context and tone of Wilson's peacemaking program reveals the extent to which the
President was committed not only to ending the war but also to creating
a postwar order based on a new conception of international relations. In January
1917, Wilson told the Senate that "there must be, not a balance of power, but a community
of power; not organized rivalries, but an organized common peace."22 The
cessation of fighting was not sufficient for Wilson. Unless peace were based
"on the highest principles of
justice, it would be swept away by the peoples of the world in less than a
generation."23 These principles of justice included notions of
democracy, self-determination, and the conviction that territorial settlements
and the balance of power should not be allowed to tread on the rights and
welfare of peoples, regardless of whether they were members of victorious or
defeated states.24
These principles were embodied in Wilson's proposals
for the terms of peace: open diplomacy, disarmament by
all powers, freedom of the seas, removal of trade barriers, self-determination
for minorities, restraint in reparations imposed on Germany, and the formation
of a league of nations to enforce the peace. The President attempted to win
European acceptance of these terms more through mass ideological persuasion
than through diplomatic tact. He used the media as well as personal tours of
Europe to launch an "ideological crusade" that would appeal to the moral instincts of Europe's masses
and induce them to reject the injustices of the old diplomacy. 25 Wilson was
attempting to speak directly to Europe's conscience and to instill a new conception of world order
through moral persuasion. As one
historian stated, "President Wilson applied the idea of international
social control to American foreign
relations, promoting collective security to restrain national egoism."26 •
The terms of the Versailles
Treaty indeed reflected incorporation of significant elements of the Wilsonian program. The British and French agreed to
provisions that ensured open diplomacy, a reduction of trade barriers and
armaments, and the establishment of the League of Nations. In return, Wilson
acquiesced to the French demand for occupation of the Rhineland and the
imposition of relatively harsh reparation terms, concessions that indicated European
rejection of central elements
of the Fourteen Points.
22. Wilson, quoted in Arthur Link, Wilson the
Diplomatist: A Look at His Major
Foreign Policies (New York: New Viewpoints, 1974), pp. 96-97.
23. Wilson, quoted in Amo Mayer, Politics and Diplomacy of Peacemaking: Containment and Counterrevolution at Versailles, 1918-1919 (New
York: Knopf, 1967), p. 21.
24. Link, Wilson the Diplomatist, p. 105.
25.
Mayer, Politics and Diplomacy of Peacemaking, p. 368.
26. Lloyd Ambrosius, Woodrow Wilson
and the American Diplomatic Tradition: The Treaty
Fight in Perspective (Cambridge: Cambridge
University Press, 1987), p.
2.
The incorporation of these
important elements of the Wilsonian program in the treaty was not simply the
result of Wilson's bargaining influence at Versailles. Liberal principles were
gaining support in Europe throughout 1917 and 1918, partly as a result
of events in Russia. The Russian Revolution gave momentum to leftist
parties in Europe and caused intellectual ferment across. the political spectrum. The Bolshevik peace plan, issued soon after the provisional government was formed in Petrograd, was boldly progressive and placed pressure on the
Allies for a substantive response.27 Radicals in Britain were also clamoring for a moderation of war aims and a more liberal international order.28
The extent to
which Wilson had established himself as the champion of liberal peace and
democracy among the French and British public became evident during the
President's trip to Europe in December 1918. In France, Wilson was
greeted by throngs of supporters and
given a hero's welcome by trade
unions and parties on the left. His reception in Britain was similar. Even the conservative Times of London commented that "we are all idealists
now in international affairs, and we look to Wilson to help us realize these
ideals and to reconstruct out of the welter a better
and fairer world."29
The historical record also
suggests that the French and British public embraced Wilsonian liberalism for
ideological and normative reasons and not simply because the United
States entered into the war and was willing to devote material resources to defeat Germany. The prosecution of
the war clearly had a profound impact on the political and intellectual climate
in Britain and France. The resurgence of the left and the rising popularity of
Wilsonian war aims early in 1918 were associated not only with growing
disaffection with the war effort but
also with fear that the dissolution
of the eastern front which followed
the Brest-Litovsk Treaty would give Germany overwhelming numerical superiority
in the West.30 U.S. assistance was
becoming increasingly important.
Yet to claim
that the Europeans were simply mouthing Wilsonian platitudes to secure U.S. involvement in the war effort
does not withstand scrutiny. As Laurence Martin points out, Wilson was
garnering support for a peace program "The principles of which
bore a marked resemblance to those long professed by the British
Liberal party."31 The wave of popular support
27. The April 1917 statement included the following
passage: "The purpose of free Russia [was] not domination over other
peoples, nor spoilation of their
national possessions, nor the violent occupation of foreign territories, but
the establishment of a permanent peace on the basis of self-determination of peoples. The Russian people [were] not aiming to increase their power abroad
at the expense of other people;
they [had) no aim
to enslave or oppress anybody."
Quoted in Arno Mayer, Political Origins
of the New Diplomacy, 1917-/918 (New Haven, Conn.: Yale University Press, 1959), p. 75.
28. Laurence Martin, Peace Without
Victory: Woodrow Wilson
and the British
Liberals (New Haven,
Conn.: Yale University Press, 1958), chap. 3.
29. London Times, quoted in Mayer, Politics and Diplomacy of Peacemaking, p. 188.
30.
Mayer, Political Origins of the New Diplomacy,
p.
311.
31.
Martin, Peace Without Victory, p. 21.
for Wilson emerged
in 1918, well after the United States had
entered the war. Furthermore, neither the British
nor the French government behaved in a way suggestive of
disingenuous posturing. As discussed below, Lloyd George offered only reluctant
support for Wilsonian diplomacy, while Clemenceau remained one of Wilson's most
formidable foes throughout 1918 and 1919. Wilson
succeeded in appealing to the people of Europe on moral and ideological, rather
than material, grounds. To the extent to which Wilsonian ideals took root, they represented the transmission of
normative claims about world order, not the opportunistic acquiescence to U.S.
military or economic power.
Although
Wilsonian liberalism appealed to the
British and French public, it gained
little support from European elites. That socialization occurred among the masses but not
among decision makers was largely attributable to coalitional
dynamics. At the end of 1917, the conservative forces initially strengthened
by the outbreak of war still maintained firm control of the war cabinets of
Britain and France. In fact, according to Amo Mayer, between 1914 and 1917 "the
forces of order achieved a position
of power to which they had aspired only in their most daring dreams before the war."32 Steeped in the practices and assumptions of
the old diplomacy, war policy was characterized by secret
negotiations, plans for
territorial annexation, and hopes of
total defeat of Germany.
During 1918, however,
conservative control of the war cabinets, particularly in Britain, eroded
considerably. The Russian Revolution and the political crisis of 1917-18 led to the formation of a strong
center/left coalition in both
countries. In Britain, growing popular support for the radical cause forced
Labourites to move to the left. To maintain
control of the government,
Lloyd George had to incorporate
liberal war aims into official policy.33 In other words, the legitimation of Wilsonian
diplomacy among the British public led to the delegitimation of the
Conservative government, which in turn brought about a moderation of war aims.
A similar policy shift did not occur in France precisely because the
center/left coalition was not strong enough to undermine Clemenceau's position.
After the defeat of Germany, the political pendulum in Britain again swung to the right, given a strong push
by the nationalistic and patriotic sentiment stimulated by victory. The waning
of support for the liberal peace program corresponded with the re-legitimation
of the right in the wake of military victory. Lloyd George accordingly paid
increasing attention to the Conservatives and their preferences for the shape
of a negotiated peace.34 The
center/left coalition eroded, and the left grew fragmented, leading to the
dissolution of the locus of political activism and idealism that Wilson had
tapped to win support for the Fourteen
Points. Wilsonian ideals
had by no
32. Mayer, Political Origins of the New Diplomacy, p. 14.
33.
Martin, Peace Without Victory, pp.
132-34 and 148-54.
34.
Ibid., p. 192.
means been
rejected, but those still committed
to his peace plan were unable
to wield effective political power. Thus, socialization of the elite did not
occur, since the domestic political context was not conducive to coalitional realignment and hence to elite
internalization of a new set of international norms. The re-legitimation of the right prevented a domestic
political crisis from emerging in Britain and France, a crisis that could well have produced a vastly different postwar
order.
With
opportunities for political advancement closed off by the resurgence of the
right, Wilson's peace program had little to offer European decision makers;
material incentives were essentially nonexistent. The norms espoused by Wilson challenged the traditional notion of power-as-resource and worked against
British and French interests defined
in such traditional terms.
Wilson called for the reduction of war reparations, the disarmament of the
victors as well as the
vanquished, and the adoption of liberal trade ideas that contradicted current
British and French practices. Without political, economic, or military
incentives, there was little
to induce elites
to undertake what would have
constituted a revolutionary change in their conception of international order. Nevertheless, through normative
persuasion, Wilson had left an indelible mark on the European
left. Especially in Britain during the 1930s, notions of collective
security and disarmament had a
profound effect on the pace of rearmament. 35 Yet
in the absence of coalitional realignment and material incentives, intellectual
ferment among the left was
insufficient to alter the normative orientation of ruling elites.
U.S. diplomacy and the end of World
War II:
liberal multilateralism in Europe and Japan
During World War
II and in its immediate aftermath, the United States articulated a remarkably
elaborate set of norms and principles to guide the construction of a postwar international
order. In the initial formulation, as articulated by the Roosevelt administration, these norms represented
a vision of political and economic
order organized around the ideas of liberal multilateralism. In the political realm, great power cooperation, embodied in the United
Nations Charter, would replace balance-of-power politics. In the
economic realm, a system of liberal, nondiscriminatory trade and finance,
embodied in the Bretton Woods agreement and the proposals for an international trade organization, would be established. 36
In the years following
World War II, as described in further detail below,
35.
Michael Howard,
The Continental Commitment (London: Temple Smith, 1972),
pp.
I IO ff.
36. These ideas are summarized by
Richard Gardner in Sterling-Dollar Diplomacy: The Origins and
the Prospects of Our International Economic Order, expanded edition (New
York: McGraw Hill, 1969). See also David P.
Calleo and Benjamin M. Rowland, America and the
World Political Economy: Atlantic Dreams and National Realities (Bloomington:
Indiana University fyess, 1973).
the exercise
of' :J.S. hegemonic power involved the projection of a set of
norms and their embrace by elites in
other nations. Socialization did occur, since U.S. leaders were largely
successful in inducing other nations to buy into this normative order. But the
processes through which socialization occurred varied from nation to nation. In
Britain and France, shifts in norms
were accomplished primarily by external inducement; in Germany and Japan, they resulted from direct intervention and internal reconstruction. In all cases, the
spread of norms of liberal multilateralism was heavily
tied to
U.S. military
and economic dominance. Just as important was the fact that socialization was a
two-way process: the Europeans themselves found opportunities to shape the
substantive content of the newly emerging Atlantic order.
The normative
order that the United States began to articulate during the war drew on the ideals of liberal multilateralism. These ideals had long
historical roots that could be traced to John Hay's "Open Door" and
to the third of Woodrow
Wilson's Fourteen Points:
"the removal, so far as possible,
of all economic
barriers." The Atlantic Charter, signed by Roosevelt and Churchill during
the war, also represented U.S. efforts to elaborate a set of ideals around which a postwar order could
be constructed. 37
Britain and France. Among the democratic
nations, the search for agreement on norms and principles was
facilitated by shared Western economic and social values. Yet in 1945, as David Watt has pointed out, U.S. ideas for a liberal multilateral order faced several
obstacles and had few enthusiastic proponents in Europe:
Whatever the
underlying realities of power, Britain and France started from the assumption that their own pre-war spheres of influence would
be maintained or restored to them. Britain still believed in its destiny in the Empire, in the
Middle East, in the Eastern Mediterranean and initially in Germany itself. France, in the person of De
Gaulle, had spent most of the war years attempting to demonstrate total independence,
and had every intention of asserting an equal
right to impose a repressive settlement on Germany as well as to repossess its patrimony in Africa, Indo-China and the Middle East. These
ambitions did not fit in very easily to a framework of American tutelage or dominance. 38
U.S. efforts
to overcome these obstacles and to induce European acceptance of a more liberal
order began with the use of coercive power. This was reflected most
strikingly in 1945-46, when U.S. officials attempted to use financial
assistance to Britain as a means of forcing a British pledge to
37. See Robert A. Pollard, Economic Security and the Origins of the Cold War, 1945-1950
(New York: Columbia University
Press, 1985), chap. I.
38. David Watt,
"Perceptions of the United States
in Europe, 1945-83," in Lawrence Freedman, ed., The Troubled Alliance: Atlantic Relations in the 1980s
(New York: St. Martin's Press,
1983), pp. 29-30.
lift discriminatory
controls and dismantle the imperial preference system. Reflecting the attitude
of Congress at the time, a congressional
report stated that "the advantages afforded by the United States loans and other settlements are
our best bargaining asset in securing political and economic concessions in the
interest of world stability.' '39 The British needed financial
assistance and were forced to accept
the unfavorable terms of the loan, which led in only a matter of weeks to a
massive drain on British reserves and forced suspension of convertibility.40
The utter
devastation of Britain and
continental Europe, underestimated at
the time by U.S. officials, limited the effectiveness
of economic coercion aimed at immediate policy change. In the wake of the
failure of the British loan to encourage reform, the Truman administration policy shifted toward less severe sanctions and inducements. Beginning in 1947, the Marshall Plan became the central vehicle
for Europe's economic renewal and also for its political reconstruction along
lines congenial with U.S. normative designs. "No matter how nebulous the ideas when Marshall spoke," Alan
Milward argues, "the political and economic intentions behind the decision
to announce the provision of aid
were extraordinarily far-reaching and ambitious. The United
States did not only intend to reconstruct western Europe economically, but also
politically."41 Beginning with financial assistance, U.S. officials
promoted alternatives to economic nationalism and empire. Their immediate
political objective was to use Marshall Plan assistance in a way that would
promote European integration. A more united Europe built on a common social and
economic foundation would help prevent the reemergence of political antagonisms
and economic failure that doomed the settlement of Versailles. But U.S. officials were also convinced that
European unity would
facilitate the construction of a larger system of liberal multilateral order.42
Through the Marshall Plan, the United States became directly engaged in the
political reconstruction of Europe.
The process
by which European elites came to embrace liberal
multilateral norms (and disengage from national and imperial alternatives)
was gradual and was sustained by the massive flow of money and resources to
Europe. Because the European economies grew rapidly during the Marshall Plan
years, the norms underlying the plan became associated with economic success
and were therefore more appealing to the elites.43
Efforts other than
39.
Congressional report, quoted in Gardner, Sterling-Dollar
Diplomacy, p. 198.
40. See Robin Edmonds,
Setting the Mould: The United States and Britain,
1945-1950 (New York: Norton, 1986), chap. 8.
41. Alan S. Milward, The Reconstruction of Western Europe,
1945-51 (Berkeley: University of California Press,
1984), p. 56.
42.
See Michael J. Hogan, The Marshall
Plan: America, Britain,
and the Reconstruction of
Europe, 1947-1952 (New York: Cambridge University Press, 1987).
43. See Charles
Maier, "The Politics of Productivity: Foundations
of American International
Economic Policy After World War II," in Peter Katzenstein, ed., Between
Power and Plenty: Foreign Economic Policies of
Advanced industrial States (Madison: University of Wisconsin Press, 1978), pp. 23-49.
economic inducements, such as
Roosevelt's earlier push for an Atlantic charter, were also designed to convince Churchill and other European
leaders of the normative virtues of liberal multilateralism.44 Before
the leaders could be convinced, however, a variety of compromises had to be made along the way.
Agreement
emerged over the desirability of a
loose system of liberal multilateralism. Two specific processes facilitated the emergence of a new normative order.
One involved the reworking of the normative ideas themselves; a two-way process was clearly at work. Although the modified set of liberal designs was not framed as an
explicit shift in international economic objectives, the United States
gradually accepted exemptions and abridgments in trade and financial arrangements, which together allowed
a larger measure of national
economic autonomy and a stronger
role for the state in pursuing
full employment and social
welfare. These compromises between multilateralism in international economic
relations on the one hand and state intervention in the domestic economy and
society on the other constituted what John Ruggie has termed "embedded liberalism."45 A loose consensus
on the norms of international economic order emerged. The British and
French moved slowly to multilateralism, and the United States came to accept
the primacy of the welfare state in the organization of the international
political economy.
The other process that
served to yield a consensus on modified liberal multilateralism was more directly
associated with domestic politics in Britain and France as well as in Italy. The resistance to U.S. ideas after World War
II came from both the left and right within Western Europe. Right-wing parties sought
to protect the fragments of empire and preserve their status
as great powers, a status that liberal multilateralism would necessarily
undermine. Left-wing parties feared the erosion of national autonomy and the
effects of multilateralism on independent economic planning. Both groups were
vocal in seeking to protect and extend programs
of full employment and social welfare.46 European movement toward a loose liberal
multilateral system involved the gradual decline of these positions. On the
right, the ravages of war utterly weakened the
capacity of Britain and France to maintain
the cloakings of colonial empire. Indeed, this weakness was in part responsible
for their willingness to invite the United States into a security relationship with Western
Europe. Likewise, the watering down of the liberal
multilateral agreements-modifications that served to protect the obligations of the welfare state-served to undercut the impact of the left.
44. G. John Ikenberry,
"Rethinking the Origins of American Hegemony," Political Science
Quarterly 104 (Fall 1989), pp. 375-400.
45. John Gerard Ruggie, "International Regimes, Transactions,
and Change: Embedded Liberalism in the Postwar Economic Order," International
Organization 36 (Spring
1982), pp. 379-415.
46. For a discussion of these groups in Britain, see Gardner, Sterling-Dollar Diplomacy, pp. 31-35.
In summary, the norms of
liberal multilateralism, backed by the massive flow of Marshall Plan aid,
provided a basis for the building of centrist coalitions in postwar Britain, France, and Italy. The gradual economic recovery of Europe also served to
weaken the positions of left- and right-wing elites who argued for national
socialist or imperial alternatives to liberal multilateral policies. Moreover,
the compromises reached between U.S. and European officials over the terms of an embedded liberal system are indicative of the importance that both groups of
elites attached to the development of a normative consensus about the terms
of postwar order.
Germany and Japan. The conviction of U.S. leaders that postwar order had to be based
on normative principles is also revealed in the governrnent's
deliberations over the postwar fate of Germany and Japan. In early 1945,
President Roosevelt agreed to the State Department's recommendation for
"assimilation-on a basis of equality-of a reformed, peaceful and
economically nonaggressive Germany into a liberal system of world trade."47
The emphasis was on "normative" rehabilitation and not punishment. Several years later,
with the rise of Cold War tensions, the plan for a reconstructed and
"assimilated" Germany also made good
geopolitical sense. But the fact
that U.S. officials were planning to promote liberal political and economic
institutions in Germany well before U.S.-Soviet hostilities emerged is an
indication of the importance they attached to the spread of liberal norms.
The U.S.
occupation of Germany had a profound impact on the character of German postwar institutions and the political
values that guided German behavior at home and abroad. The occupation policy (in both Germany and
Japan), as John Montgomery notes, "aimed at a programmed
installation of democracy, first, through the elimination of despotic elites,
second, through the encouragement and
support of a new leadership, and, finally, through constitutional, legal, and institutional assurances of a
new order."118_These efforts to purge the old elite and build new democratic institutions had uneven success.
The occupation forces found it easier to promote the demilitarization and
democratization of Germany than to promote the restructuring and decartelization of the German
economy. Moreover, it is quite likely that postwar Germany would have moved in the direction of political reform and
economic liberalization even in the absence of the Allied occupation. Nonetheless, the process of internal reconstruction during the
occupation left a lasting impact on the institutions and values that have
shaped postwar German politics.
A central
legacy of the Allied occupation was the decentralization of the German political system. As Peter Katzertstein argues,
"Although American,
47. Roosevelt, quoted in Robert Dallek,
The American Style of Foreign Policy:
Cultural Politics and Foreign Affairs (New York: Knopf, 1983), p.
147.
48. John D. Montgomery, Forced to Be Free:
The Artificial Revolution in Germany and Japan (Chicago: University
of Chicago Press, 1957), pp. 4-5.
British, and
French authorities disagreed on the degree and type of political
decentralization that they preferred, they strongly agreed that a territorial
decentralization of the Federal Republic would shield democratic institutions from the possible
reemergence of centralizing, totalitarian political movements."49 This
federal system restricted the power of the national government by assigning
major responsibilities (such as education, law enforcement, and administration)
to the states. The result was a system of dispersed political power in which
federal officials had to negotiate and share power with regional elites.
The most enduring economic reforms carried out during the Allied occupation were those of currency reform and trade liberalization. The impulse
for reform came at the behest of the Allied
occupation, but it was also championed
by a few leading
German officials. Currency
reform, a vital factor in German economic
recovery, was initiated
by Economics Minister Ludwig Erhard, who used the occupation period
to articulate a distinctively German vision of market economy.50 Other reforms, such as trade liberalization, were carried out at the insistence of Allied officials.
As Henry Wallich argues, "American authorities in Washington and Paris had decided to make
Germany into a test or showcase of liberalization."51 Through these efforts (as well as through less direct programs
of political reeducation and cultural exchange), the United States encouraged the growth
of a set of political and economic
norms that were soon embraced
widely by German elites.
There were limits on the ability of U.S. officials to give shape to German political
and economic institutions. "It is doubtful that new ideas and new leaders,
however worthy, can survive alone," Montgomery argues. "Both require a degree of support that cannot be achieved by promises,
propaganda, or external pressure."52 But Allied forces did give shape to
institutions that reinforced political values congenial with the U.S. policy of
liberal multilateralism.
Similar postwar policies
emerged in regard to Japan.53 Through its role as
49. Peter J. Katzenstein. Policy and Politics in West Germany: The Growth of a Semisovereign State (Philadelphia: Temple University Press,
1987), p. 16.
50. Ibid., p. 87.
51. Henry C. Wallich, Mainsprings of the German Revival (New Haven, Conn.: Yale
University Press, 1955), p. 372.
52. Montgomery, Forced to Be Free, p. 194.
53. The Truman
administration, in a major statement
of postsurrender policy on 6 September
1945, argued that the Japanese
people were to "be encouraged to develop a desire
for individual liberties and respect for fundamental human
rights, particularly freedom of religion, assembly, speech, and the press."
Most important, the Japanese were "to become
familiar with the history, institutions, culture, and the accomplishments of the United States" and, by so
doing, tum themselves into a "New Deal-style Democracy." Quoted in Dallek, The American Style of Foreign Policy, p. 149.
Compliance with the precepts of a liberal multilateral order, in the view of U.S.
officials, must begin with liberal reforms at home. Only with these economic and
political reforms could the nations of
the industrial world, victors and vanquished alike, abide by American-inspired norms.
an occupying power, the United States
in the early postwar years reshaped the norms that guided Japanese behavior in
the domestic and international arenas. The U.S. decision to intervene directly
in the reconstruction of Japan's domestic political institutions set the stage
for a striking episode of
socialization through internal reconstruction. The occupation reforms were
based on norms of democratization and liberalization, norms that were embraced
by elites and masses alike. Although historians continue to dispute whether the
Japanese would have chosen a similar path of democracy and political reform in
the absence of the U.S. occupation,54 there is widespread acknowledgment that the United
States played a central role in the proliferation of the norms
and political institutions that eased Japan's reintegration into the postwar order.
Despite the
existence of the Allied Council for Japan, responsibility for Japan's postwar
reconstruction fell almost exclusively into American
hands under the guidance of the Supreme Commander for the Allied Powers (SCAP). In the short term, SCAP was to restore order to
Japanese society and to destroy the country's military capability. In the long
term, however, U.S. officials believed that democratization and political
reform were needed to ensure the eradication
of militaristic tendencies from Japanese society.55 The goal was not only to graft democratic institutions
onto the Japanese polity but also to inculcate among the Japanese people values
that would allow political reforms to plant deep roots. As Edwin Reischauer stated, "The
occupation did not stop at political
reform but went on to a bold attempt
to reform Japanese society and the
economy in order to create conditions which were thought to be more
conducive to the successful functioning of democratic institutions than the old
social and economic order had been."56
Reforms that were
introduced by SCAP and accepted by the
Japanese government
penetrated the political, economic, and social realms. A new constitution,
drafted by SCAP and put into effect on 3 May 1947, served as the foundation for Japan's postwar political
structure. The constitution contained several
key features. First, it established a parliamentary system based
on the British model.57 Provisions were included to ensure that the Diet would not again be subordinate
to the executive, as it was during
the interwar period. To
protect further the parliamentary system, the emperor was relegated to a position of largely symbolic
importance, and the judiciary was
54.
For
contrasting views on this issue, see the contributions of Edwin Reischauer, J. W. Dower, Sodei Rinjiro,
and Takemai Eiji in the following book: Harry Wray and Hilary Conroy, eds., Japan Examined: Perspectives on Modern Japanese History (Honolulu:
University of Hawaii Press, 1983),
pp. 331-63.
55.
Edwin
Reischauer, The Japanese (Cambridge, Mass.: Harvard University Press, 1977),
p. 106.
56. Ibid., p. 107.
57. SCAP reasoned that Japan's experience with
republican government during the 1920s made the British model more appropriate
than the American model. See Reischauer, The
Japanese, p. 106.
revamped so as
to minimize executive interference.58 Second, the constitution
stipulated that the state grant and protect specified civil rights, including
the right of workers to bargain collectively, the right of women to vote, and
the right of all citizens to equal education. In addition, local governments
were granted increased autonomy. Third, the
constitution prohibited the maintenance of armed forces and explicitly expressed the will of the
Japanese people to renounce war forever. Most of these constitutional
provisions were implemented without delay, although the prohibition on armed
forces fell by the wayside during the 1950s.
In the economic realm,
SCAP pushed forward two major reforms.
Prior to the war, close to 50
percent of agricultural land was owned by traditional elites and worked by
tenants. Radical land reform reduced this figure
to 10 percent.59 SCAP also tried to dissolve the zaibatsu, the powerful conglomerates
that dominated Japanese industry. The attempt was partially abandoned, however,
in order to further the country's economic recovery. The zaibatsu were able to
maintain their control over industry, though they were effectively
stripped of the large holding companies that they had constructed prior to the war.60
In the social
realm, SCAP focused on cultivating communal norms of equality and on educational reform. Reform was successful in enfranchising women but was only partially successful in
breaking down the traditional authority of main families over branch families.
Educational reform was widespread. The United States completely revamped the
primary and secondary education system. The curriculum was based on the U.S. model,
and education through the high school level became compulsory. A new
educational philosophy focused attention on the development of analytic skills
rather than on memorization. These changes so challenged traditional patterns that they were implemented
only gradually and with varying degrees of success.61
Through this
broad package of reforms, the United States helped implant among Japanese
elites and masses the norms of parliamentary government and.antimilitarism that
have guided Japan's domestic and foreign policy during the postwar era. Clearly, the pre-war system had been discredited
by the disastrous consequences of Japanese expansion and aggression, and the
Japanese people felt betrayed by the pre-war government and military elites.
War had indeed made the polity ripe for change, and new political values and
norms may even have emerged in the absence of the U.S. occupation.
Nevertheless, the U.S. occupation deeply influenced the direction
58. See Theodore H. McNelly, "
'Induced Revolution': The Policy and Process of Constitutional Reform in
Occupied Japan," in Robert E. Ward and Sakamoto Yoshikazu, eds., Democratizing Japan: The Allied Occupation (Honolulu: University of Hawaii Press, 1987).
59. Ibid., p. 108.
60.
J. W. Dower, "Reform and Consolidation," in Wray and Conroy, Japan Examined,
p.
348.
· 61. Reischauer, The Japanese,
pp. 108-9.
and content of the
changes, and the extent to which they were compatible with the U.S.
vision of postwar order was by no means a coincidence.
That a process of socialization was at work during this period is confirmed
by the extent to which elite
personnel and structures remained unchanged
by the occupation. As mentioned above, the zaibatsu continued to dominate industrial circles. Furthermore, many pre-war
administrative and bureaucratic organs continued to function during and after
the occupation period. This institutional continuity hampered the implementation of certain reforms and perpetuated traditional elite
prerogatives and patterns of authority. But because of shifts taking place at the level of substantive beliefs and normative orientations, this continuity
did not prevent the Japanese from embracing principles of liberal equality and
democracy embodied in the new constitution. As one Japanese scholar notes,
"As the years have passed, the influence
of occupation reforms has penetrated
into the very core of Japanese
society."62 And as another Japanese observer confirms, "The
reforms themselves exercised a powerful influence on the character of Japanese
postwar politics and in fact upon all
of Japan's postwar history."63
In summary, socialization played an important role in the construction
of a postwar order. The proliferation of liberal multilateral
norms, both through external
inducement and internal reconstruction, infused the system with a set of values that would eventually
allow the system
to function smoothly
and in a manner consistent
with U.S. interests.64 By the mid to late 1950s, U.S. efforts at international socialization proved successful. A set of liberal
multilateral norms had, to varying degrees, taken root in Western Europe and
Japan.
British experience in India and Egypt:
socialization
through colonization
A necessary
condition for the emergence of both informal and formal empire is the explicit,
physical penetration of peripheral society by metropolitan agents. Whether
officials, soldiers, traders, financiers, or missionaries, these agents serve as the medium through which socialization occurs.65
During the middle decades of the nineteenth century, Britain was relatively
successful in altering the normative orientation of Indian elites and thereby
62. Takemai Eiji, "Some Questions and Answers," in Wray and Conroy, Japan uamined,
pp. 359-60.
63.
Masataka Kosaka, A His1ory of Pos1war Japan (Tokyo: Kodansha International, 1972),
p. 65.
64. Note that
U.S. policy in both Gennany and Japan was predicated on the assumption that changes in domestic institutions and structures would lead to desired
changes in foreign policy. In Britain and France, it was focused more narrowly on altering
elite norms about international
behavior. The more ambitious approach in Germany and Japan was at least in part due to the wide
variance between the ideas being propagated
and the nonns existing in the target
country.
65.
For an insightful study of the dynamics of metropolitan penetration, see Michael Doyle,
Empires (Ithaca, N.Y.: Cornell University Press, 1986), pp. 141-231.
furthering the
secularization and liberalization of political life. Socialization contributed
significantly to the longevity of British rule in India, to the relatively low
costs of maintaining the empire in South Asia, and to the lasting effect of
the British presence on Indian
political culture. The situation in Egypt was quite different;
Britain did not penetrate Egyptian society or socialize Egyptian elites as it did in India.
This more shallow
form of colonial penetration increased British reliance on the use of
force, meant that the period of colonial rule was relatively short, and
tempered the long-term impact of Britain's presence on Egyptian society. To
explain these differences between Britain's experience in India and Egypt, we
examine both British policy and the effect of indigenous social and political
structures on the interaction between
metropole and periphery.
India. Beginning in the seventeenth century, the East Indian Tea Company gradually
established control over significant areas of the subcontinent. It was not
until 1813, however, that the British Crown extended formal sovereignty to
these areas. While the principal goal of the British was to govern India effectively and allow for lucrative trade with the
metropole, it was clear that British intentions went far beyond efficient
administration.
As one
observer of the period stated, the British empire "has
for its end the larger freedom, the
higher justice whose root is in the soul not of the ruler but of
the race."66 This commitment to effect a deeper
change in Indian society was driven
not only by a desire to consolidate British power but also by the increasing strength of
utilitarianism and evangelism within Britain itself. The former provided
impetus for the improvement of living
conditions and education in India. The latter
brought missionaries seeking to propagate
Christian morality in India. As Charles Grant expressed in an article contained
in an 1832 parliamentary report on
India, British rule is a question "not merely of increasing the security
of the subjects and prosperity of the country,
but of advancing social happiness, of meliorating the moral state of men, and of extending a superior
light."67
Through what
specific mechanisms did socialization take place? British efforts to effect change
in Indian political culture were embodied or manifest
in a wide range of policy tools. First,
the Charter Act of 1813 was the first of several enactments that firmly established English as the primary language for the school system
and government business. The spread
of English made Western books and ideas accessible to educated Indians and made possible more extensive and meaningful
contact between Indians and Englishmen. As
Percival Spear noted, "The widespread knowledge of English provided an ideological bridge;
ideas flowed over in the persons of British lawyers
66. J. A. Cramb, cited in Francis
Hutchins, The lllusion of Permanence: British Imperialism in India (Princeton, N. J.: Princeton University Press, 1967), p. 149.
67.
Grant, cited in ibid., p. 5.
and officials,
missionaries, and disinterested men of learning.... The essential fact is that these ideas did begin to take
root."68
Second, the Indian judicial system
was reformed along the British model. Beginning in 1835, English replaced
Persian as the language of record. The principles
and procedures of British law were also imported into India.69 James Fitzjames
Stephen held out high hopes for the effect
of British law on Indian
society: "The establishment
of a system of law which
regulates the most important part of the daily
life of a people constitutes in
itself a moral conquest, more striking,
more durable, and far more
solid than the physical conquest which
renders it possible. It exercises an influence over the minds of the people in many ways comparable
to that of a religion.... Our law is, in fact, the sum and
substance of what we have to teach them.' '70 The British also restructured the Indian education
system, again relying
on their own model. Sir Charles Wood's education dispatch of 1854
established universities in Calcutta, Bombay, and Madras, all of which adopted London's examination procedures.
These reforms
and institutional changes led to the emergence of a new Indian middle class
whose prosperity and professional success depended
on its learning of English and adoption of British legal and business
procedures.71 The growth and rising
stature of this class of collaborators in tum played a central role in allowing
British ideas and practices to take root in India. According to Spear,
"Britain's supreme function has been that of a cultural germ carrier The introduction of the
English language provided a vehicle for Western
ideas, and English law a standard practice. Along with English literature came Western
moral and religious
ideas, and the admission
of missionaries provided, as it were, a working model of Western moral precepts."72
To what extent
did the British succeed in changing
the norms and values shaping Indian political culture? During the nineteenth
century, British rule deeply influenced the
structure and normative
orientation of Indian political life.
Before the British presence, Indian
politics was dominated by religious
affiliation and practice, the caste system, and strong local and regional
allegiances. By the end of the 1800s, Western notions of administrative
efficiency and justice had led to the gradual secularization of politics; the
importance of the caste system had declined somewhat; and the spread of English
had helped overcome the political regionalism that had been perpetuated by linguistic diversity
(some 179 distinct
languages and 544 dialects
had hampered communication). In short, British political values and practices
68. Percival Spear, The Oxford
History of Modern India, /740-1975, 2d ed. (Delhi:
Oxford University Press,
1978), p. 137.
69.
Ibid., p. 205.
70.
Stephen, cited in Hutchins,
The Illusion of Permanence, p. 126.
71.
Spear, The Oxford History of Modern India, pp. 2()(rl!.
72.
Ibid., p. 7.
had intermingled with and, in some instances,
replaced the traditional norms eroding under the pressure of colonialism.
As mentioned
above, these changes were possible largely because of the emergence of a new
political elite within India. British administration of India took place
through a new class of collaborators consisting of English-speaking and
Western-educated professionals. Trained within an education system introduced
by the British, these individuals-bureaucrats, lawyers, doctors, and
teachers-quickly rose to prominent positions within Indian society. Induced by
the opportunities for advancement
and indoctrinated by Western education, this
new political elite came to believe
in and espouse the values and norms articulated by the Raj. They
thus provided a mechanism for socialization,
a medium through which British values seeped into Indian political
culture.
By the late 1800s,
the osmosis and spread of Western political values and teachings
had stimulated an increasingly strong movement for democracy and Indian
independence.73 Given the principles embodied in the liberal
notions imported to India,
it is not surprising that the
same educated elite co-opted by the British
to facilitate their rule later became a key force
behind the delegitimation of imperial domination. 74 Yet even after the opposition movement grew
strong, the depth of British penetration of Indian political culture was
evident. As Anil Seal points out, "The new politicians were impeccably
constitutional. [They] spoke highly of British justice.
They asked God to bless the
British Queen. They had friends inside the British parliament.' '75 This behavior suggests that the trajectory of
British rule in India was shaped by
the power of ideas as much as by military and economic might. The consolidation of British rule during the 1800s was due, at
least in part, to a process of socialization. The observed
changes in political values came about through policy coercion; that is, the transmission
of ideas followed the forcible importation of Western political institutions
and practices. Moreover, the collaborative elite was enticed by promises of
financial or political gain. Nevertheless, India's political elite actually came to believe in Western values rather than
simply mouthing acquiescence because of British coercion. And the subsequent
rise of Indian nationalism and delegitimation of the British presence were also associated with changing beliefs, rather than with a changing constellation of military and economic power.
73. The gradual consolidation of British rule in the mid-1800s by no
means removed all resistance to the colonial
presence. The mutiny of 1857, which came as a great
surprise to the British, demonstrated
the potential for latent resentment to be mobilized. It was not until the last
two decades of the century, however, that an organized nationalist movement
began to systematically undermine British rule.
74. See Hutchins,
The l/lusion
of Permanence, pp. 190-91.
75. Anil Seal, The Emergence of Indian
Nationalism: Competition and Collaboration
in the Later Nineteenth Century (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1968), pp. 14-15.
Egypt. British rule in Egypt after the occupation in 1882 stands in stark contrast to the
British experience in India. Neither in intent
nor in deed did the British penetrate
and restructure Egyptian
political culture as they did in India. British elites, from
the outset of the occupation, never intended to incorporate Egypt into the
formal empire as a lucrative and permanent outpost. On the contrary, they
viewed Egypt primarily as a strategic asset needed to guard the Suez Canal and
the route to India. They assumed that after restoring stability to Egypt following the revolt of Colonel Arabi, they could withdraw
without jeopardizing Britain's strategic or economic interests.76 The evangelical,
moralistic, and normative orientation of British rule in
India was strikingly absent from British policy
in Egypt.
The British did not attempt to restructure the indigenous political, legal, and administrative apparatus
through which Egypt was governed.
They sought only to fine-tune and make more efficient the existing administrative
apparatus. In Viscount Milner's words, "The
object of the British officials
has been, not to Anglicize the Egyptian bureaucracy in political opinion,
but only to Anglicize
it in spirit, to infuse into its ranks that uprightness and the
devotion to
duty which is the legitimate boast of the Civil Service of Great
Britain."77 John Marlowe agreed that
"British administration was merely added
as a superstructure to the existing fabric of government."78
As a result, no new political elite emerged in Egypt. On the contrary,
both before and during
the occupation, the British relied on well-established landlords and merchants as their
collaborators. "They adopted the expedient of attempting to raise standards of living without changing class structures," as Robert
Tignor points out, and "they attempted to make authority felt without undermining the position of the traditional ruling classes." In short, “they governed behind these ruling classes."79The
ruling classes cooperated
with the British
not because they believed in Western values or
justice but, rather, because
they benefited from their role as collaborators
and from the loans and improvements
in irrigation that came with the British
presence. They were not drawn into or psychologically co-opted by British
rule. The very mechanism through
which socialization occurred
in India-the creation of a new political elite-was never set in motion in Egypt.
The
absence of significant reform in the Egyptian education and legal systems was indicative of the
superficial nature of British rule. The
British had only partial
success in spreading the use of English throughout the
76. Robert Tignor, Modernization and British Colonial
Rule in Egypt, /882-19/4 (Princeton, N. J.: Princeton
University Press, 1966), pp. 24 and 48-49. See also Nadav Safran, Egypt
in Search of Political Community (Cambridge, Mass.: Harvard University Press, 1961), p. 54.
77. Viscount Milner,
England in Egypt (London: Edward Arnold, 1920), p. 290.
78. John Marlowe, Anglo-Egyptian Relations, /800-1953 (London: Cresset
Press, 1954),
p. 251.
79. Tignor, Modernization and British Colonial
Rule in Egypt, p. l05.
country.80 English-language newspapers did not
proliferate in Egypt as they did in India. This limited the extent to which Western ideas
and values were absorbed even by the educated elite. Furthermore, the
education system changed little under British rule and was given a low priority
in terms of government expenditure.81 Viscount Milner admitted
that Britain did "very little for Egypt in the way of voluntary
schools."82 The lack of universities was also a significant problem.
The British, in order to restrict the spread
of nationalism, actually opposed the expansion of the university system.83 Many Egyptians completed their
secondary education but did not have the opportunity to attend university. They
were therefore too well-qualified for manual work but lacked the credentials
for government or administrative work. This created a large body of
disaffected youth easily swayed by nationalist
sentiment.84 The effect of British rule on the court system was
similarly insignificant. Despite the importation of some Anglo-Indian legal
procedures, the Egyptian
judicial system continued
to be modeled on that of the French.85
The
superficial nature of British rule was also reflected in Britain's dependence on the cooperation
of specific collaborators. During the early
years of colonial rule, Khedive Tewfik played a key role in facilitating
British administration. When Tewfik died in 1892, he was replaced by Abbas II,
who was far less willing to cooperate with the British. Richard Cottam
describes the result: "With the realization that Abbas II would not serve
as the legitimating agent for the British presence ...
the
British established a different type of control system-one which relied far
more on direct coercive instruments."86 In 1893, Lord Cromer requested and was granted the
first of several increases in the size of the British garrison. Moreover,
traditional elites, who were no longer willing to cooperate with the British, were replaced by British personnel. The collaborative network was breaking down. Between 1896 and 1906, the
number of British officials serving in Egypt
rose from 286 to 662.87 To cope with resistance movements, the British were forced to implement a
rigorous security system in the countryside
and hire some fifty thousand informants to report on developments in local
villages. As Timothy Mitchell describes this system, the British
"transformed modem military methods of inspection, communication and discipline into
80.
Milner, England in Egypt, p. 301.
81.
Tignor, Modernization and British Colonial
Rule in Egypt, p. 319.
82.
Milner, England in Egypt, p. 299. See also Safran,
Egypt in Search of Political Community,
p. 55.
83.
Tignor, Modernization and British Colonial
Rule in Egypt, p. 338.
84.
Marlowe, Anglo-Egyptian Relations, p. 189.
85.
Tignor, Modernization and British
Colonial Rule in Egypt, pp. 123-37.
86. Richard Cottam, Foreign Policy Motivation:
A General Theory and a Case Study (Pitts• burgh: University of Pittsburgh Press, 1977), p.
239.
87.
Ibid., p. 236.
an uninterrupted process
of political power.'
'88 Only ten years after the initial occupation, the British found themselves scrambling to keep pace with a
nationalist movement that made colonial rule increasingly difficult and costly. The
British thus attempted to rule Egypt
through unadorned coercion and inducement. They sought to co-opt the traditional ruling elite by
either forcing or inducing them to serve
as peripheral collaborators. Yet once the benefits
of cooperation with the British began to
decrease, there was no corpus of
beliefs or norms that had taken root in Egyptian
society to justify
or legitimate British rule
and to counter the rise of nationalist and anti-British sentiment.
As John Marlowe described this phenomenon, "The only moral justification for imperialism is the pax which accompanies the legions.
Great Britain in Egypt tried to secure the presence of the legions
without being prepared to enforce the pax." Britain initially enjoyed
the privileges of occupation without paying the price but soon "destroyed the moral basis on which her
position in Egypt rested."89 In 1914, when the use of coercion in the absence of efforts
to socialize Egyptian
elites proved insufficient to subdue the
swelling tide of nationalism, Britain unilaterally declared
Egypt a protectorate and imposed martial
law. By 1922, however,
the British cabinet
realized that the situation
was untenable and granted Egypt formal independence.
The imposition of foreign rule' unadorned by a corpus
of beliefs and norms led to a period of occupation
that was both difficult and relatively short-lived. Britain's experience of
formal empire in India, though it also
ended in acquiescence to nationalism, was far more durable and left a deeper
impression on Indian society. The distinguishing feature
of British hegemony in India was that Britain succeeded
in building and socializing a new political elite, allowing it to penetrate
and reshape Indian political culture.
Conclusion
In this
article, we have attempted to characterize and shed light on a neglected
component of hegemonic order-power as socialization-and have articulated a
theoretical framework for thinking about when and how socialization functions
effectively as a source of power in the international system. The intersection between theory and
historical cases corroborates our three main
hypotheses.
First, the
case studies suggest that the timing of socialization and the extent to which it
occurs are highly dependent on the efforts of the hegemon
to propagate its conception of international order and also on the
susceptibility of secondary states to a restructuring and redefining of the
terms of domestic political legitimacy. It is principally in the aftermath of war or
88. Timothy Mitchell, Colonising Egypt (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1988), pp. 97-98. .
89.
Marlowe, Anglo-Egyptian Relations,
p. 254.
colonial penetration that the hegemon articulates a new set of
norms and that domestic political conditions make elites most
susceptible to socialization. In the post-World War II case, the spread of U.S. norms was intimately
tied to the tasks of reconstruction and
coalition building. The reconstruction aid of the Marshall Plan and its
ideological gift wrapping strengthened the hands of government elites standing
against both left-wing and right-wing opposition to liberal multilateralism.
Moreover, after the initial failure of coercive efforts to promote liberal
multilateralism, U.S. officials grew more sensitive to European sovereignty and the need for European leaders to take
the initiative in constructing a postwar order. It was only through struggle and compromise that the Europeans and Americans
arrived at a consensus on the
norms of the postwar order. A process
of "thought reform," as
Andrew Shonfield puts it, did take place, with the Europeans gradually shedding the norms of colonization and imperial preference.90 In the case
of India, the British were able to legitimate their rule because the colonial
presence led to the emergence and co-optation of a new professional class that
quickly established its stature and
political power within Indian society. The British manipulated the standards of
domestic political legitimacy, replacing traditional standards with their own.
In doing so, they were able to consolidate and legitimate their rule. In the case of
Egypt, precisely because the British administration depended on traditional
elites, there was little change in the standards of domestic legitimacy. There was no opportunity for the
transmission of norms; the consequent
absence of interaction between
British rule and domestic politics hindered the emergence of legitimate domination.
Second, the
case studies confirm that socialization is principally an elite and not a mass
phenomenon. For norms to have a consequential effect on state behavior, they
must take root within the elite community. Wilson did not succeed fully in
shaping the peace process, since his package of liberal norms found substantial support in Britain and France only among the
public and was not greeted with
enthusiasm in elite circles. The
successful spread of British norms in India resulted from the creation and co-optation of a new
political elite. In contrast, the shallow and fragile nature of British rule in
Egypt was a function of the British decision to govern through traditional
elite channels.
Third, the case
studies suggest that socialization comes about principally through external
inducement or internal reconstruction and that normative persuasion is
insufficient to drive the socialization process. Elites in secondary states
come to believe in the norms and ideals articulated by the hegemon only injunction
with the provision of material
incentives or through the imposition of those norms via direct intervention. Although Wilson's
90. Andrew Shonfield, "International Economic Relations of the Western
World: An Overview," in Andrew Shonfield, ed., International Economic
Relations of the Western World,
/959-/97 I, vol. I (London: Oxford University Press, 1976), p. 98.
program found
some followers in post•l918 Europe,
its ultimate failure was at least partially due to the fact that it was not
backed up with economic or military assistance. In Europe after World War II, U.S. offers of material aid and opportunities for coalitional
realignment drove forward the establishment
of a normative consensus. In India,
a new political elite emerged at least in part because of the opportunities for
political advancement and material gain that accompanied collaboration with the
British.
Although socialization is triggered by coercion and material inducements, the process of socialization
can lead to outcomes that are not explicable simply in terms of the exercise of coercive power. Socialization affects the
nature, the costs, and the
longevity of the interactions
that shape hegemonic systems. In
particular, socialization leads to the legitimation of hegemonic power in a way
that allows international order to be maintained without the constant threat
of coercion. In this regard,
it may be instructive to study the waning of hegemony-and especially that of Pax Americana-in terms of the legacies of socialization as well as in terms of
the decline of the hegemon's military and economic dominance. As we have noted, the importance of
socialization is most likely to be observed during periods when the hegemon's coercive capacities are in decline.
According to our argument, the spread of liberal
multilateral norms among elites in the late 1940s has given the contemporary
hegemonic order more durability than would be expected by those who focus
exclusively on the distribution of material resources.
The
socialization of hegemonic power has left a loose normative consensus embedded
in the rules and institutions of the postwar system. These rules and institutions should
persist well beyond the inflection point of
hegemonic decline. Pax Americana, nonetheless, is in decline, and we are left to reflect
on the nature of the normative principles that might be used by a future hegemon to legitimate a new order.
______________________
“Those who are most effective in claiming the moral high ground have been able to rally their people, dehumanise the target and take what they want.” The Master Strategist, Ketan J. Patel, 2005
When a Prime Minister with political forces in a Democracy seek to ostracise, brand citizens disagreeing as malicious spreaders of misinformation, as “radical” “corrosive insidious forces”, subversive fifth columnists, seeking to undermine Democracy by starting a “cultural war” he and the socialist ‘progressive’ elites started years ago, utilising dialectic emotionalism, “pretentious diction, and high-flown rhetoric” doublespeak meant to make truth more palatable and assign inverse derogatory labels to those who object, using public and private organisations such as the Digital Industry Group Inc. (DIGI) to silence citizens across Democratic media discourse platforms you know you have arrived at the doorstep of a 1984 Marxist regressive one thought gulag.
If we are to survive as Democracies in the West and not simply trade it for a shoddy tyranny of good intentions armed with Marxist deviance silencing paradigms which tear us internally apart and make us easy prey for tyranny of a different form, we cannot afford our humanity institutions to keep pouring out these destroyers of our biology/culture ideology.
The Voice is a means to an end, an end which cannot be voiced before they have the political power to enforce. Whatever form it takes it is not in the interest of preserving Equal Voice to Power Democracy nor increasing the quality of life for any Australian as it is a self-enhancement not a self-improvement strategy of an elite.
Why Christchurch, Why Queensland, Why violence is rising in the Western Democratic streets for the same the WOKE assumptions which failed in Afhganistan as elsewhere tearing their Democracies apart with their minutia over survival.
Why citizens not right-winger subversives are going to meet WOKE force of Ostracism with reactive force to Ostracise in turn. The ugly face of the WOKE
will be returned with vengence.
1984 inversion. In future the little libraries hidden behind walls will have the pre-Woke literature and history. Who would have thought the 1984 terror of big Brother would be upon us so soon.
Just waiting for the knock on the door from the WOKE Morality Police to take my Biggles.
Soldiers' Dilemma: Foreign Military Training and Liberal Norm Conflict, Renanah Miles Joyce, April 01 2022
The WOKE sickening delusion they are saving Democracy rather than putting their dogma jackboot on its throut to silence citizens who desire different moral abstracts as a basis for achieving an improving quality of life.
https://reader.foreignaffairs.com/2023/02/28/how-democracy-can-win-3/content.html
How Democracy Can Win, The Right Way to Counter Autocracy, Foreign Affairs, By Samantha Power | February 28, 2023
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