( SOCIOLOGICAL Liberalism)

By
Mehwish Mushtaq

MSC 1ST
(MORNING)

To
Dr. Sarwat Rauf

Subject: theories of IR

Department of International Relations

Faculty of Social Sciences

National University of Modern Languages (NUML), Islamabad.

June 30,2020
 Sociological Liberalism
Liberalism is an international relations theory which focuses upon peace. It is one of
positivist school of thoughts. They believe in democratic societies, international
cooperation, liberty, economic interdependence, individual progress and freedom.
Liberals believe that cooperation is attainable. The idea of liberalism was given firstly
by Jhon Lock in 17th century, he is considered as the father of Liberalism. He saw great
potential for human progress in modern civil society and capitalist economy both of
them flourished in state and guaranteed individual liberty. There are four strands of
liberalism which includes; Sociological, Interdependence, Republican and Institutional
liberalism. Sociological liberalism is one of the most important school o thoughts among
others, which focused upon the individuals and the transnational relations among
people.
Sociological liberalism is focused upon individuals. International relations are not only
the relations among states but also transnational relations among people, groups, and
organizations who belongs to different states or region. According to sociological
liberals, Individual to individual interaction is more suitable.
Proponents of Sociological liberalism:
Following are major proponents of sociological liberalism;
 James Rosenau
 Richard Cobden
 Karl Deutsch
 Jhon Burton
 Phil Cerny

James Rosenau:
Transnational relations among states are the relations between people, groups who interact with
each other, and leads towards cooperation. “James Rosenau” is of view that people or group
interaction is a more effective source of cooperation then government to government
interactions. He defined transnational relations as “The process where by international relations
conducted by governments have been supplemented by relations among private individuals,
groups and societies that can and do have important consequences for the course of events”.1
(1980: 1) It means that individual’s interaction is more cooperative then of governmental
interaction. Further, James Rosenau, is of the view that the electronic means of communication
has brought the people from different regions of the world more closer. We take an example of
the people of Pashtun belt of Pakistan and Afghanistan who interacts with each other freely due
to their shared cultural aspects. Private individuals’ interaction is peaceful in every perspective.

1
Robert Jackson & George Sorensen, introduction of international Relations (Oxford: Oxford University
Press,2012), 103
Richard Cobden:
Richard Cobden who was 19th century thinker, is of view that transnational relations is very
important for building of stable and long-lasting peace. He is of the view that the governments
have little interaction with each other than nations. He uses the word “nation” for referring to the
societies and their membership. He argues that governments have little interaction with each
other’s while the people to people interaction if exists has strong bonds and the guarantees the
peace among such states. For example; people travel from one country to another gain more
cooperation rather than states or government interaction.
Karl Deutsch:
“Karl Deutsch” who is the thinker of 1950s, also define transnational relations in such a way that
a high degree of transnational ties between societies can lead towards cooperative and peaceful
relations among the people even there is absence of war. There are less chances of war when
people interact with each other. It also leads to a security community where different groups of
people interact and make “integration” discuss the problems and solve the conflicts with out use
of force. He given example that such communities emerged in the western countries in North
Atlantic area.
John Burton:
Another proponent of this theory “John Burton”, in his book, “World Society” has given the
“Cobweb Model” of transnational relationships. John is of the view that every society comprises
of different groups relating to different segments of the society like religion, business, labor etc.
he is of the view that the different groups of the people living in different States of the world,
shares some components with each other those components might be in the form of similar way
of thinking or the similar emotions towards different things which they are surrounded with. For
proper understanding of the concept proposed by him he gave the Cobweb model, through which
he wanted to demonstrate how the people in the different parts of the world are connected with
each other. Further he is of the view that the Cobweb Model points to a world driven more by the
mutually beneficial cooperation than by antagonistic conflicts.
To conclude it can be said, that the Sociological liberalism is one of the School of thoughts of the
Liberalism. It basically focuses on the social interaction of the people of the world through
which he considers that the foreign relations i.e. the relationships among different states of the
world could be maintained better with the people to people interaction as compared to the state to
state interactions via their respective governmental machineries.

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