FUNCTIONALISM REVISITED: A STUDY OF THE FUNCTIONALIST APPROACH TO INTERNATIONAL RELATIONS.

摘要

This thesis re-examines functionalism in order to clarify its character, intent, and implications for reflection on world order. Its advocates present functionalism as a method for establishing international organizations. Yet their argument entails an approach with wide-ranging political assumptions which are only partially articulated. Therefore, this study analyzes the functionalist approach in order to explicate its underlying conceptual and normative framework.;In comparison to realism, which assumes state sovereignty, and idealism, with its idea of world government, it is shown that functionalism is a distinctive approach which rejects the conventional state model of political organization. Past commentators of functionalism have criticized it in terms of a misunderstanding of politics and therefore have not fully grasped its assumptions regarding a new form of political authority which is a functional alternative to the state.;The analytical framework of functionalism is presented as a combination of reform liberalism, Fabian socialism and pluralism which is transposed to the international setting, building on the progressive Enlightenment tradition begun by Kant and modified by St. Simon. Functionalism reinterprets St. Simon's positivistic view of science in a pragmatic fashion, thereby assigning science a central but experimentally-delimited role in the gradual development of a peaceful world polity and community.;In terms of this framework the functionalist argument is examined to show that its four major steps present a process of change in society and government, which leads to a new type of politics, political authority, world political system and world community, and in which science not only occasions such change but ultimately becomes its artificer, shaping political organization and creating community.;The study concludes with a mixed assessment of functionalism. Functionalism addresses important political issues related to the impact of technology and the need for and nature of political community and public authority at the supranational level. Nevertheless, the conceptual framework which it presupposes is flawed by a faith in the transformative power of science, which distorts its view of politics and the state and ultimately undermines its humanistic intentions. Therefore, it is concluded that functionalism cannot serve as a framework for futher reflection on world order.