International Relations. A self-Study Guide to Theory

Self-study (2) 
Expand what you have learned about the role of cooperation and institu-
tions in international politics. First, please read chapters 4, 5 and 6 of Keo-
hane 1984: After Hegemony. Then return to the text and read the key as-
pects and review questions below.
Step 3: 
Check your understanding: key aspects and review questions 
Key aspects 
 
Neoinstitutionalist theory 
Core question 
• Chances of cooperation in an anarchical internation-
al system, peaceful change 
Assumptions about actors 
and structure 
•
States as unitary actors and the most important ac-
tors in international politics (interest-based institu-
tionalism) 
•
Rationality assumption 
•
Anarchy 
•
No hierarchy of actor’s/state goals 
“Agency and structure” 
•
Actors ontologically prior to structure (ontological 
individualism) 
•
Actors (states) construct international institutions 
•
Institutions (such as regimes and international or-
ganizations) as structural features of the internation-
al system 

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155 
 
Neoinstitutionalist theory 
Type of explanation and 
notion of causality 
•
Agency-centered explanation: causal explanation of 
cooperative outcomes in international politics in 
terms of actors’ rational actions (methodological in-
dividualism)
•
Structure of international system, defined as distribu-
tion of actor’s capabilities (independent variable) ex-
plains state behavior (dependent variable): but dif-
ferent outcomes across issue areas because of inter-
dependence (intervening variable) 
•
Interdependence as a “structural constraint” of state 
action (intervening variable): Interdependence de-
fined in terms of political significance (costs) for indi-
vidual actors/states (methodological individualism)