Domestic Actor Theory §

• Similar to Liberalism

• What influence government’s decisions

  • Politicians and leaders
  • Domestic Political Structure:
    • Dictatorship, authoritarian regimes are more likely to be paranoid of other states => building up military+nuclear power ¹

• Domestic Actor Theory a change in which actors and/or institutions control the small state’s government leads to a change in foreign policy. ²

  • This change may occur because any or all of the following
    • A change in control of the government as different parties control key leadership positions (e.g. prime minister, president…)
    • A change in domestic institutions that lead to a change in the number of influence of veto players
    • A change in power of non-governmental actors to influence policy decisions (e.g. fl public opinion)

💡 $△$ Domestic Power $⟶$ $△$ Foreign Policy

$\cancel{△}$ Domestic Power $⟶$ $\cancel{△}$ Foreign Policy

Reference §

Footnotes §

1. Why Do States Build Nuclear Weapons__ Three Models in Search of a Bomb by Scott D. Sagan (1995) ↩

2. Levels of Analysis of Foreign Policy ↩