STATE LEVEL OF ANALYSIS (2nd Level of Analysis)

The level of analysis which focus on the state as an international actor and the policy making
forces within the county.

The State is a primary actor of state politics.

The state is the most powerful actor on the world stage.

1. Discuss the elements of the state
2. Distinguish nation from the state

Foreign policy is made by human beings and formulated by a decision-making process.

A nation is a group of people bound together by a common language, culture, religion.

A state is a combination of territory, government, sovereignty, and people. All states are nations
but not all nations have states.

However, decision makers do not exist in a vacuum, instead, people make decisions within a
complex political environment. In the making of foreign policy, four major
considerations/variables can be identified as foundation.

THE FOREIGN POLICY MAKING PROCESS WITHIN THE STATE

The Variables that affect the foreign policy making process:

 1. TYPES OF POLITICAL SYSTEM
- Open political system (democratic)
 Many can participate, with extensive right to oppose or compete
- Closed Political System (Authoritarian)
 Few can participate, and there are minimal rights to oppose policy or compete for
power
Classification of regimes determines the difference in the process by which they make foreign
policy and the differences in the substance. In democratic systems, “TOO MUCH
DEMOCRACY” is inadvisable in the foreign policy process. Democracies are “inferior” to more
controlled governments in the conduct of foreign relations because IMPULSE RATHER
PRUDENCE dominates in democracy.

The multiplicity of voices in democracy create greater restraints on decision makers and lessen
the chance of war.

2. TYPES OF SITUATION
- Foreign policy making varies according to the type of situation
a. Crisis situation
o a situation in which decision makers are surprised by an event, and believe that
they only have a short time to make a decision
b. Non-Crisis Situation

Characteristics of crisis decisions:

a. They are made by a small group only
o The decision conforms to the presidential image of decision-making

3 TYPES OF ISSUES
 Decision making varies according to the nature of issue area involved. Issues that
address different subject areas will be decided by different decision makers and
by different processes.
Foreign trade issues are intermestic because they not only involve foreign relations, but they also
have an impact on the domestic economy in terms of job, prices and other factors.
SUBNATIONAL ACTORS
1. Political Leadership
o Political leaders are invested with important constitutional and legislative formal
powers.
2. Bureaucracies
o Bureaucracies, regardless of type, influenced the state. It has its own institutional
mentality, have their own set of values and priorities. They often favor policies
that advocate policies based on their organizational view, rather than the national
interest.

WAYS BY WHICH BUREAUCRACIES INFLUENCE POLICY DECISIONS:

a) Filtering Information
o Decision makers depend on the organizations to give them the facts, but what
facts are told depends on what subordinates believe and what they pass on
b) Recommendations
o Bureaucracies are the source of expertise and they supply political leaders with
analysis that reflects the agency’s preferred position.
c) Implementation
o Decision makers rely on their subordinates to carry out policy. Discrepancies
between what political leaders thing they said and what their subordinates actually
do can result from misunderstanding and unconscious misinterpretation based on
subordinate preferences or in an attempt to delay, change or ignore the decision.

FOREIGN POLICY

Foreign policy role is less than that of executive branch decision makers. Their exact influence
varies greatly among countries. Even in democratic countries, legislatures are inhibited by many
factors as follows:
a. Tradition
b. The belief that a unified national voice is important, which is particularly true in crisis
c. The executive dominant tradition giving
SYSTEM LEVEL OF ANALYSIS (The Nature of the World)

The focus is on the characteristics of the international systems and subsystems.

Common factors used by political analysts:

a. System Level Actors
b. Number of Poles
c. Distribution of Power Assets
d. Norms of Behavior
e. Geographic characteristic
f. Scope and Level of Interaction

SYSTEM LEVEL ACTORS

Who are the actors?

Classification of Actors:
1. National
2. Supranational
3. Transnational

THE NATIONAL ACTORS

- The most important actors are the states. Since the Treaty of Westphalia, the international
political system has been dominated by a large number of self-interested states that do not
routinely obey and higher authority, there are no powerful centralizing organizations in
the system. This causes the system to be anarchical.
 SURANATIONAL ACTOS
1. They have individual countries as members;
2. Some aspects of the organization’s authority transcend that of its individual members.

TRANSNATIONAL ACTORS
The third category of actors in the international political system. These actors include both
international governmental organizations and international non-governmental organizations.

NUMBER OF SYSTEM POLES

- This denotes the number of major poles or more or less equal power that dominates the
system. A system pole can be a single actor (usually a country). A pole can be a vertical
structure consisting of a powerful country and the less powerful states in its orbit, such as
a powerful bloc of the Soviet Union and its Eastern European allies. A pole can also be a
horizontal structure made up of a number of countries, no one of which is powerful
enough to be a pole but which collectively merit this description.

A system with different poles operate definitely. Thus, a system with two poles (bipolar) has a
medium chance of war; a three pole (tripolar) system has a relatively low propensity toward war,
while systems with four or more countries (multipolar) have the probability of war. A unipolar
system are relatively peaceful.

C. DISTRIBUTION OF POWER ASSETS

- These are the components of national power that help determine any country’s strength. It
includes:
1. Military Strength
2. Industrial Capacity
3. Natural resources
4. Technological Sophistication
5. Population