Reflection Paper 1
Comparing the major tenets of Mercantilism, Liberalism, Structuralism, and Constructivism
Mercantilism
Mercantilism does not believe in human capacity of reason to deliver moral progress. IN its perspective, humans are born to be equal and their nature is selfishness (Archer, Kevin. "INST 1500." Oct. 2015. Lecture). Their right to do whatever they want impedes all humans to fulfill their right, because big guys who have more power always win under absence of anarchy.
Because individuals cannot handle themselves, mercantilism determines economy as states building project (Archer, Kevin. "INST 1500." Oct. 2015. Lecture). State are sovereignty which are existences of an independent political community with a supermen authority over its territory. Therefore, fundamental focus of mercantilism is national security (high politics). Because mercantilism views that protecting states is a uniqueness contribution to states economy which benefit their nations consequently. There is no laissez-faire function in the states operation.
To protect security, states of leaders make decisions according to the profit and losses calculations (Archer, Kevin. "INST 1500." Oct. 2015. Lecture). They gather information and analyze them to make their outcome
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Its study focuses on where the norms and values come from and how they change the economy. According to this perspective, market is the anatomy of civil society. Constructivism argues that market itself cannot be seen as moral or immoral, but any immorality or morality inside the markets is created by society, people’s values and beliefs which direct their judgements. Unlike realism and mercantilism recognizing the world is relatively unchangeable and consistent, constructivism is concerned with instability of the world because a function of changing norms and values (Archer, Kevin. "INST 1500." Oct. 2015.