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Other constructivist studies look at ethnic cleavages as a source of civil conflict; at creation of identities for states, parties, and movements; and at the role of norms in lawmaking and policymaking. These are very general concepts, and have a great deal of overlap with other theories. There likely won't be any reading notes like this listed below.

Instrumentalism is a closely related framework. Both view study social constructs, but instrumentalism assumes that .		 In political science, it can be difficult to disambiguate constructivism from comparative politics. Consider it as such: did the presence of an ethnic cleavage make some structure inevitable in a manner that is inherently transferable to other countries? Or did ethnic conflict cause people to develop norms around structures that are uniquely localized?
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 * [[TheFutureIsHistory|The Future Is History: Restorative Nationalism and Conflict in Post-Napoleonic Europe]]; Lars-Erik Cederman, Yannick I. Pengl, Luc Girardin, and Carl Müller-Crepon; 2024
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 * [[FarRightAgainstGreen|Far-right against green: the re-emergence of geographically defined voting patterns and the new environment cleavage in Western Europe]]; Daphne Halikiopoulou, Christos Vrakopoulos, and Christoph Arndt; 2026

Constructivism

Constructivism is a framework for sociological and psychological study of politics.

Contents

  1. Constructivism
    1. Description
    2. Reading Notes

Description

Constructivism is defined by a resistance to assuming incentive and preference structures. As a result, most constructivist study is determining what individuals, organizations, states, etc., do want. This is generally done following sociological or psychological methodology. Instrumentalism is similar but assumes that social constructs are a means to some end, effectively inserting a rationality assumption.

The term 'constructivism' is largely only used in the context of international relations, where it is in stark contrast to realism, institutionalism, and rationalism.

In political science, it can be difficult to disambiguate constructivism from comparative politics. Consider it as such: did the presence of an ethnic cleavage make some structure inevitable in a manner that is inherently transferable to other countries? Or did ethnic conflict cause people to develop norms around structures that are uniquely localized?

Reading Notes

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PoliticalScience/Constructivism (last edited 2026-03-09 17:55:47 by DominicRicottone)