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Chapter 3
Neomercantilism
Multiple-Choice
1) Neomercantilists
a) give priority to politics over economics.
b) give priority to economics over politics.
c) view IPE as a variable sum game.
d) view the state as existing on fairly equal footing with several
important actors in IPE.
2) All rational choice theorists
a) operate within the liberal or realist perspective.
b) see rational individuals as utility maximizers.
c) see rational individuals as obtaining an optimal amount of
information before making decisions.
d) rely on mathematical models.
3) Neomercantilism
a) focuses on the efforts of states to achieve absolute gains.
b) views globalization mainly as a political process.
c) sees that states can be constrained by domestic structures.
d) is virtually synonymous with economic nationalism.
4) Friedrich List
a) viewed free trade as valuable in the long term for countries that had
gained industrial supremacy.
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b) advised governments in the South to protect their infant industries
so they could catch up with developed countries in the North.
c) supported agricultural protectionism to build up the power of the
state
d) provided advice on how Germany could catch up with the United
States.
5) U.S. realist scholars after World War II
a) finally recognized that economic issues had become more
important.
b) saw political and economic issues as closely linked, and assumed
that political power was essential for a state to gain economic power.
c) followed in the path of the mercantilists, Hamilton, and List.
d)
politics and economics.
6) The revival of neomercantilism as an IPE perspective in the 1970s and
1980s stemmed partly from
important as politics in IPE.
b) the neomercantilist belief that the growth of interdependence made
the study of IPE essential.
c) the interest of neomercantilists in the Cold War and how it related
to the global political economy.
d) the fact that growing international competition caused states to
become more involved in the economy.
7) Hegemonic stability theorists believe that
a) there have been a number of global hegemons over the centuries.
b) economic openness and stability cannot be maintained in the
absence of a global hegemon.
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c) economic openness and stability are more likely when most other
.
d) hegemony will be maintained as long as there is a dominant state
that is able to lead.
8) Gramscians
concessions to subordinate social classes.
b) view hegemony in terms of coercion of the weak by the strong.
c) view hegemony mainly in state-centric terms.
d) view hegemony in terms of culture and ideas.
9) Public goods
a) are underproduced in IR.
b) are always provided by the hegemon.
c) are nonexcludable, but can sometimes be rival.
d) are provided by several major countries.
10) Some neomercantilists view globalization as
a) having enabling effects on the state.
b) having similar effects on large and small states.
c) systematically undermining state control.
d) mainly a political process.
11) Most renewalists in regard to U.S. hegemony
a) concede that U.S. economic power has decreased in a relative sense
since 1945.
b) have focused on hard power
c) have been right-wingers on the political spectrum
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d) have seen hegemony as inherently unstable.
12) Neomercantilists believe that
a) the South should focus on absolute gains to decrease its
vulnerability to the North
b) the South should focus on increasing its wealth and power to
decrease its vulnerability to the North
c) the South must accept the importance of interdependence if it is
ever to catch up with the North.
d) the poorest in the South should receive more attention by theorists.
13) Hegemonic stability theory
a) is a realist theory.
b) has become of less interest to most IR scholars.
c) has become of more interest to U.S. scholars over the years.
d) has helped to clarify the relationship between international and
domestic politics.
14) Compared with liberals, neomercantilists are more likely to
a) see hegemons as having mixed motives.
b) see hegemons as providing public goods.
c) believe in the separability of economics and politics.
d) criticize the inequalities in the capitalist system.
15) Compared with historical materialists, neomercantilists are more likely
to
a) be economistic.
b) draw linkages between domestic and international politics.
c) see hegemons as self-interested.
d) be supportive of capitalism.
True-False
1) Neomercantilists believe that in the nineteenth century Britain benefited
from a division of labor and free trade.
2) Neomercantilism is the IPE counterpart of realism.
3) Neomercantilism and economic nationalism are virtually synonymous.
4) U.S. neoconservatives wanted the country to focus more on economics to
build up U.S. strength in the late 1980s and 1990s.
5) Mathematical models are a necessary feature of rational choice analysis.
6) Most hegemonic stability theorists believe that there have been only 3
global hegemons.
7) In most circumstances public goods are not in short supply.
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Fill in the Blank
1) Economic thought and practice in Europe from about 1500 to 1750 which
emphasized national power and contributed to state building, is referred to as
2) IPE theorists that emphasize relative gains and the importance of the state
are referred to as .
3) Those who describe IR as a , believe that groups may
gain or lose together.
4) When a country can get other countries to want what it wants, the country
has _______________.
5) When the uncoordinated actions of states do not produce the best possible
outcome for them, there is a _______________________.
6) The term refers to an extremely unequal distribution of
power, where one powerful state controls or dominates other states in the
international system.
7) Goods that are nonexcludable and nonrival are .
Essay
1) What are the similarities and differences between realism,
neomercantilism, mercantilism, and economic nationalism?
2) Why did U.S. realists devote so little attention to IPE issues after World
War II? Why was there a revival of U.S. neomercantilism in the 1970s-80s?
3) How and why do theorists differ in their views regarding the strategies
and motives of hegemonic states?
4) What are some of the strengths and weaknesses of rational choice as an
analytical approach to the study of IPE?
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economy, and why does their provision present collective action problems?
What is the relationship between hegemony and public goods?
6) How do theorists differ in their views regarding the current status of U.S.
hegemony? Is any other actor likely to replace the United States as the
global hegemon?
7) What is the difference between hard and soft power, and how has U.S.
hard and soft power changed in recent years?
8) How were the mercantilists similar to, and different from, Alexander
Hamilton and Friedrich List in their approach to IPE? Did liberalism have
9) What aspects of North-South relations are of most, and least interest to
neomercantilists? Why is this the case?
10) What are the strengths and weaknesses of the neomercantilist
perspective?