Please use this identifier to cite or link to this item: https://hdl.handle.net/10419/84307 
Authors: 
Year of Publication: 
2010
Series/Report no.: 
Serie Documentos de Trabajo No. 438
Publisher: 
Universidad del Centro de Estudios Macroeconómicos de Argentina (UCEMA), Buenos Aires
Abstract: 
This paper counterpoises Carlos Escudé's 1994, 1995 and 1997 treatment of anthropomorphic metaphors of the state, with Alexander Wendt's 2004 treatment of the same subject. It stresses the need for a historical memory in IR scholarship, suggesting that the lack of an epistemological equivalent to the concept of 'discovery' in the harder sciences may open the way for less-than-scholarly attitudes towards precedents, making the accumulation of knowledge less likely. It discusses whether or not state personhood is actually a fiction. Finally, it explores the consequences, for IR theory in general and peripheral realist theory in particular, of state personhood being indeed a harmful fiction. The author argues that if anthropomorphisms of the state lead to fallacy, then Hedley Bull's domestic analogy is likewise fallacious. And if this is the case, the hierarchy of the structure of the interstate system is exposed, together with Waltz's error in postulating an anarchy.
ISBN: 
978-987-1062-61-4
Document Type: 
Working Paper

Files in This Item:
File
Size
139.79 kB





Items in EconStor are protected by copyright, with all rights reserved, unless otherwise indicated.