Representants and international orders

IF 2.2 1区社会学 Q1 INTERNATIONAL RELATIONS

International Theory Pub Date : 2021-10-14 DOI:10.1017/S1752971921000154

Alena Drieschova

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引用次数: 0

Abstract

Abstract The paper introduces a new explanation of international order that focuses on representants. Representants are practices, artifacts, and language that stand in for the international system's units in international fora. They are crucial for International Relations (IR), given that IR deal with a macro-realm that can never be fully present, but needs to be made concrete in specific localities. Representants have four interrelated effects: (1) they define the units of the international system; (2) they legitimize them; (3) they provide them with differential degrees of power; and (4) they serve as tools for governing. When representants are seriously challenged, orders are in crisis; when new representants emerge, a new order has taken hold. The paper develops a mechanism of change emerging from struggles over representants. It studies the transition from the medieval order of universal monarchy to an order of divine right absolutism. Representants, such as gothic cathedrals, the mass, and coronation rituals maintained the medieval hierarchical order with the pope/emperor at the apex. The Reformation provided the last step in kings' challenge to the medieval order. Kings adapted existing representants, so that they would portray the independence of kings from the papacy/emperor, and simultaneously position kings above feudal lords.

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代表与国际秩序

摘要本文介绍了一种以代表为中心的国际秩序新解释。代表是在国际论坛中代表国际体系单位的实践、工件和语言。它们对国际关系至关重要，因为国际关系处理的是一个宏观领域，这个领域永远不可能完全存在，但需要在特定的地方具体化。代表有四个相互关联的作用:(1)确定国际体系的单位;(二)使其合法化;(3)为它们提供不同程度的权力;(4)它们是管理的工具。当代表受到严重挑战时，秩序就处于危机之中;当新的代表出现时，一种新的秩序已经确立。本文发展了一种从争夺代表的斗争中产生的变化机制。它研究了从中世纪普遍君主制秩序到神权专制秩序的过渡。哥特式教堂、弥撒和加冕仪式等代表着中世纪的等级秩序，教皇/皇帝处于最高地位。宗教改革是国王向中世纪秩序挑战的最后一步。国王改编了现有的代表，这样他们就可以描绘国王独立于教皇/皇帝，同时将国王置于封建领主之上。

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来源期刊

International Theory Multiple-

CiteScore

6.60

自引率

0.00%

发文量

期刊介绍： Editorial board International Theory (IT) is a peer reviewed journal which promotes theoretical scholarship about the positive, legal, and normative aspects of world politics respectively. IT is open to theory of absolutely all varieties and from all disciplines, provided it addresses problems of politics, broadly defined and pertains to the international. IT welcomes scholarship that uses evidence from the real world to advance theoretical arguments. However, IT is intended as a forum where scholars can develop theoretical arguments in depth without an expectation of extensive empirical analysis. IT’s over-arching goal is to promote communication and engagement across theoretical and disciplinary traditions. IT puts a premium on contributors’ ability to reach as broad an audience as possible, both in the questions they engage and in their accessibility to other approaches. This might be done by addressing problems that can only be understood by combining multiple disciplinary discourses, like institutional design, or practical ethics; or by addressing phenomena that have broad ramifications, like civilizing processes in world politics, or the evolution of environmental norms. IT is also open to work that remains within one scholarly tradition, although in that case authors must make clear the horizon of their arguments in relation to other theoretical approaches.