This chapter discusses the study of analogies and metaphors as cognitive heuristics in foreign policy decision-making. It examines how analogical reasoning can help decision-makers reduce the complexity of foreign policy problems. The use of analogies and metaphors involves two subsequent cognitive processes wherein decision-makers activate analogies or metaphors from long-term memory while also mapping their knowledge on the activated analogies or metaphors onto the foreign policy decision. The chapter provides an overview of analogies and metaphors in Foreign Policy Analysis (FPA). It also considers possible future research on analogies and metaphors in foreign policy and foreign policy decision-making.
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Chapter
13. Analogies and Metaphors
Chapter
8. The Bureaucratic Politics Approach
This chapter provides an overview of the bureaucratic politics approach when it operates in line with foreign policy. The chapter considers an approach which looks at governments and their operations within foreign policy as the outcome of political bargaining between different government bureaucracies. The bureaucratic politics approach uses the concept of action channels to identify the bureaucratic actors who participate in government foreign policymaking. The chapter explains how different bureaucratic actors in the same government may advocate different foreign policy positions which can cause conflict in the decision-making process. The chapter finally presents the basic assumptions and key arguments of the bureaucratic politics approach while showing how it can be used in empirical Foreign Policy Analysis (FPA) research.
Chapter
5. Critical Theories
This chapter looks at the contribution of critical theories to the study of foreign policy. It then discusses the key general characteristics of critical International Relations (IR) theories before elaborating on the three strands of critical theories: feminism, postcolonialism, and Marxism. Critical theorizing in IR brings out the open structures of power and ensuing hierarchical social relations among actors. The chapter explains how critical theories can broaden the understanding and awareness of power relations in foreign policy research while also widening perspectives on relevant agencies in foreign policy research. It shows how critical theories give voice to marginalized, oppressed, and silenced actors in foreign policy.
Chapter
2. Democratic Politics
This chapter introduces the proposed theoretical toolbox this book intends to use for the studying of democracy in Europe. The idea is that the analytical concepts created by this toolbox will prove useful for understanding the various aspects of democratic politics seen throughout Europe. The fundamental philosophy of this book is the idea that to understand democratic governance, in particular in Europe, there needs to be a model. The goal isn’t to include every single possible detail of what is observed in the real world. Rather, it is to consider the essential elements for understanding democratic politics and to use those to highlight the various nuances found in the real world. A model is a comparative and analytical tool, rather than a method of example.
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6. Electoral Systems and Direct Democracy
This chapter starts off with an overview of the institutions that decide how citizens cast ballots, firstly, in elections, and secondly, directly for policy. The former is related to electoral systems and the latter to direct democracy. The chapter considers the implications of these institutions for party systems and political representation from the view point of the principal–agent framework. There is a large variety of electoral systems used in Europe. Most elections are held using the system of proportional representation. However, there are important institutional differences that need to be remembered. The chapter then goes on to examine the effects of electoral systems on the party system. This is carried out with electoral change over time in mind. Finally, the chapter turns to direct democracy and analyses the use of referendums, specifically with regard to the question of the European Union (EU).
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14. European Politics into the Future
This chapter explores recent changes in European politics and looks to the future for European democracy as it stands now. The chapter explores the ongoing political change that can be seen within European countries and also at the European Union (EU) level. It aims to highlight four important debates about the state of democracy in Europe. These are: the debates about the rise of political fragmentation and its consequences for democracy; democratic backsliding in central and eastern Europe; the impact of the United Kingdom leaving the EU on democracy; and the democratic deficit in EU politics.
Book
Klaus Brummer and Kai Oppermann
Foreign Policy Analysis provides a guide to core foreign policy approaches, drawing insights from international relations and non-Western perspectives. Chapters put theoretical approaches front and centre without neglecting the right connection with international relations theories. This book challenges Western-centric perspectives on foreign policy analysis and reflects the rise of non-Western scholarship in the field. After an introduction to the topic, the first part of the book looks at various international relations theories such as realism, liberalism, constructivism, and critical theories. The second part moves on to cover domestic politics approaches and discusses two-level games, organisational behaviour, and bureaucratic politics. The third and final part looks at psychological and cognitive approaches, including examinations of prospect theory, operational code, leadership trait analysis, poliheuristic theory, analogies and metaphors, and the groupthink model. It ends with some perspectives.
Book
Catherine E. De Vries, Sara B. Hobolt, Sven-Oliver Proksch, and Jonathan B. Slapin
Foundations of European Politics introduces important tools of social science and comparative analysis. The first part of the book acts as an introduction to the topic, looking at democratic politics and multilevel politics in Europe. The second part moves on to citizens and voters, considering issues related to ideology and voting decisions. Part III looks at elections and introduces electoral systems and direct democracy, representation, political parties, and party competition. The next part is about government and policy. The last part looks at the rule of law, democracy, and backsliding.
Chapter
14. The Groupthink Model
This chapter outlines the key concepts of the Groupthink Model, which places decision-making in small groups at the centre of analysis. As an empirical phenomenon, groupthink occurs when the striving for harmony and agreement within a decision-making group makes critical thinking take precedence over the substantive task the group has to work on. The analytical focus of the Groupthink Model primarily depends on foreign policy decision-making in small groups. The chapter presents empirical applications of the Groupthink Model, which are mostly confined to Western countries and the United States. It mentions how the weaknesses of the Groupthink Model open up several avenues for future research.
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4. Ideology and Issues
This chapter looks at the changing nature of ideology in Europe. It also delves into the issue of voter preference and considers how that has changed over time. It is all too often assumed that voters, as well as parties, exist along a single ideological left-to-right continuum. However, the truth is that there more deviations from this continuum than we might have in the past assumed. With the emergence of new salient issues, such as immigration, the environment and European integration, the old assumptions no longer hold true. The chapter also looks at populism, which it defines as a thin-central ideology. The final questions of this chapter are: how has populism challenged our current model of democracy? What does the future hold in this regard?
Chapter
1. Introduction
This introductory chapter provides an overview of the field of Foreign Policy Analysis (FPA). It presents theory-guided explanations of foreign policy to establish the foundations of foreign policy. FPA is a distinct subfield of International Relations (IR) that draws on insights from other disciplines to provide theory-driven explanations of foreign policy. Additionally, foreign policy covers a range of different issue areas, such as questions of war and peace, and states' decisions on the use of force. The chapter notes how the book is structured to address the thematic blocks of major IR theories, the interplay between domestic and international influences, psychological and cognitive approaches, and further development of FPA.
Chapter
1. Introduction
The Introduction argues that to understand European politics there are two premises that need to be accepted. Firstly, the interplay between European and national-level politics must be taken seriously. The two cannot be studied independently. Secondly, a theoretical model of politics is necessary to help us to make assumptions about politics explicit and to ensure that the arguments used are logically consistent. Models help us to zoom in on a particular aspect of politics and apply our analysis to real-life examples. It also helps us to spot the similarities and differences across political systems and governments so we can make comparisons. The Introduction answers the question: why focus on Europe? One of the most obvious reasons is that Europe is the home to the largest number and variety of democratic governments anywhere in the world.
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11. Law-Making in Governments and Parliaments
This chapter explores how political systems across Europe actually make policy and also how they change policy. It examines in detail how coalitions are formed and looks at how coalitions function. The chapter uses the theoretical lens of the Veto Players theory to consider how the nature of governments, and parties within governments, affect the type of policies that become law. It also looks at the ease with which governments can change existing policy. The chapter moves on to address the role of informal actors such as interest groups. Processes differ across different countries and at the European Union (EU) level and that is examined in this chapter as well.
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11. Leadership Trait Analysis
This chapter focuses on Leadership Trait Analysis (LTA), which zooms in on leaders' personality traits as key drivers of foreign policy. The chapter correlates the LTA approach with the broader field of Foreign Policy Analysis (FPA). LTA is based on the assumption that the individual characteristics and peculiarities of decision-makers exert a significant impact on foreign policy with regard to both decision-making processes and the substance of policy. The specific analytical framework of LTA includes seven individual leadership traits, three general questions, and eight overarching leadership styles. The chapter suggests that there should be further research to explore the questions of context-specificity and stability of traits across issue areas and time.
Chapter
3. Liberalism
This chapter details the contribution of liberalism to the study of foreign policy. It starts with the similarities and differences of situating liberal Foreign Policy Analysis (FPA) in the tradition of classic liberal thought. The liberal approach in FPA builds on the rich tradition of liberal political philosophy at the same time as representing an analytical perspective. The chapter then presents a figure of the liberal explanatory model of foreign policy wherein the key explanatory variables are the foreign policy preferences of societal actors and their relative domestic influence. It explains that liberal FPA often focuses on the foreign policy influence of interest groups and public opinion.
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3. Multilevel Politics in Europe
Thsi chapter considers territory in European politics. The idea is that policy-making in Europe acts like a system of multilevel governance. Here, policy authority which exists at the national level, is increasingly being shared with institutions at the supranational European Union (EU) level and by regional governments at the subnational level. The chapter also looks at concepts such as pooling, delegation of policy authority, federalism, and decentralization. Although we tend to think of nation-states as the building blocks of modern politics, more and more, this chapter agues, we must consider how these so-called building blocks interact with each other and also what they themselves are made up of. This is where the term multilevel governance is relevant. This term characterizes the complex relationship of policy authority between political actors situated at different territorial levels of governance.
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10. Operational Code Analysis
This chapter explains that operational code analysis offers a cognitive perspective for analysing foreign policy decision-makers. It defines operational codes as the decision-makers' political beliefs, which are used to explain foreign policy decisions and actions. Operational code analysis puts individual decision-makers front and centre and adopts a cognitive perspective, addressing the influence of leaders' political beliefs. The chapter then discusses the origins, evolution, and empirical applications of the operational code analysis approach, and references the pertinent methodological questions relating to the most suitable source material for inferring the operational codes of decision-makers. Finally, the chapter notes that current research assumes a causal correlation between beliefs and foreign policy decisions.
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7. The Organizational Behaviour Approach
This chapter examines the notion of an organizational behaviour approach with respect to foreign policy. Essentially, the organizational behaviour approach explains foreign policy as the output of government organizations operating according to standard patterns of behaviour. The chapter then enumerates the main functions and characteristics of organizational decision-making processes while highlighting the central role of organizational routines. However, the approach showcases that organizational routines sometimes have unintended consequences which may lead to foreign policy failures. The chapter looks into the assumed stability of organizational routines while considering the ability of decision-makers to adapt, modify, and reproduce existing routines in line with their own political interests.
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9. Party Competition
This chapter looks at competition between parties. First, the chapter outlines the ways in which party systems are described and categorized, in terms of the number of parties (in other words, fragmentation) and their ideological position (polarization). The chapter then addresses the theological models that aim to explain party competition. The chapter uses the simple spatial model here which predicts that parties position themselves close to the centre of politics to appeal to the modern voter. It then looks at competition models. These models expect parties to champion issues they ‘own’. The chapter also looks at valence models which focus on competence, leadership traits and other non-party characteristics of candidates and parties. The chapter ends with a discussion of mainstream parties, looking at how they seek to respond to the rise of challenger parties.
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15. Perspectives
This chapter considers a number of broad avenues for advancing Foreign Policy Analysis (FPA) theories. FPA theories can be advanced by incorporating insights from ‘non-US’ foreign policy research, which in turn could contribute to a further decentring of the field more generally. The chapter details the points of departure for ‘internal dialogue’ among FPA theories before suggesting that the FPA can benefit from non-US foreign policy research. It then highlights that FPA theories have numerous implications and lessons for real-world decision-making. Essentially, FPA offers a multitude of starting points for future research, such as bridge-building and cross-fertilization within the field and other areas of scientific inquiry.
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