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Rationalizing Politics: The Emerging Synthesis of International, American, and Comparative Politics

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  • Milner, Helen V.

Abstract

International relations has often been treated as a separate discipline distinct from the other major fields in political science, namely American and comparative politics. A main reason for this distinction has been the claim that politics in the international system is radically different from politics domestically. The degree of divergence between international relations (IR) and the rest of political science has waxed and waned over the years; however, in the past decade it seems to have lessened. This process has occurred mainly in the “rationalist research paradigm,” and there it has both substantive and methodological components. Scholars in this paradigm have increasingly appreciated that politics in the international realm is not so different from that internal to states, and vice versa. This rationalist institutionalist research agenda thus challenges two of the main assumptions in IR theory. Moreover, scholars across the three fields now tend to employ the same methods. The last decade has seen increasing cross-fertilization of the fields around the importance of institutional analysis. Such analysis implies a particular concern with the mechanisms of collective choice in situations of strategic interaction. Some of the new tools in American and comparative politics allow the complex, strategic interactions among domestic and international agents to be understood in a more systematic and cumulative way.

Suggested Citation

  • Milner, Helen V., 1998. "Rationalizing Politics: The Emerging Synthesis of International, American, and Comparative Politics," International Organization, Cambridge University Press, vol. 52(4), pages 759-786, October.
  • Handle: RePEc:cup:intorg:v:52:y:1998:i:04:p:759-786_44
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    Cited by:

    1. Henry Farrell & Adrienne Héritier, 2006. "Codecision and Institutional Change," EUI-RSCAS Working Papers 41, European University Institute (EUI), Robert Schuman Centre of Advanced Studies (RSCAS).
    2. Mark A. Pollack, 2007. "The New Institutionalisms and European Integration," The Constitutionalism Web-Papers p0031, University of Hamburg, Faculty for Economics and Social Sciences, Department of Social Sciences, Institute of Political Science.
    3. Neda Zawahri & Oliver Hensengerth, 2012. "Domestic environmental activists and the governance of the Ganges and Mekong Rivers in India and China," International Environmental Agreements: Politics, Law and Economics, Springer, vol. 12(3), pages 269-298, September.
    4. Büthe Tim, 2010. "Global Private Politics: A Research Agenda," Business and Politics, De Gruyter, vol. 12(3), pages 1-26, October.
    5. Philip B. K. Potter, 2007. "Does Experience Matter?," Journal of Conflict Resolution, Peace Science Society (International), vol. 51(3), pages 351-378, June.
    6. repec:bla:glopol:v:8:y:2017:i:s6:p:54-64 is not listed on IDEAS
    7. Eelco van der Maat, 2011. "Sleeping hegemons: Third-party intervention following territorial integrity transgressions," Journal of Peace Research, Peace Research Institute Oslo, vol. 48(2), pages 201-215, March.
    8. André Kaiser, 2002. "Alternation, Inclusion and the European Union," European Union Politics, , vol. 3(4), pages 445-458, December.
    9. Ronen Peter Palan, 2020. "An evolutionary approach to international political economy: the case of corporate tax avoidance," Review of Evolutionary Political Economy, Springer, vol. 1(2), pages 161-182, August.
    10. David Held & Robert Schütze & David Held & Pietro Maffettone, 2017. "Moral Cosmopolitanism and Democratic Values," Global Policy, London School of Economics and Political Science, vol. 8, pages 54-64, October.
    11. Dustin Tingley, 2014. "Survey Research in International Political Economy: Motivations, Designs, Methods," International Interactions, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 40(3), pages 443-451, May.

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