Description
Building on the literature dealing with the composition of international order (including constructivism, the English School of IR and the Stanford School of Sociology) and the norm diffusion (localization) literature, I offer and coin a new concept of normative pivots. Normative pivots are norms (or bundles of norms) that allow bridging differences between two diverse normative environments, including the global liberal international society and non-liberal states. I specifically analyze developmentalism (ideology and normative perception centered around socio-economic development as the fundamental organizing political theme) as a key normative pivot in Chinese politics and foreign policy. By pointing to this particular normative pivot and his role, I illustrate how the People’s Republic of China coexists with the global Western-led (liberal) international society. While an intermediating link (channel) created through this normative pivot is robust and important, it is also limited in its scope, which indicates a room for various normative conflicts between China and the international society.
