Parsons (1951) postulated that all recurring actions occur in systems and that any person at a given time is a member of multiple interrelated and sometimes nested systems. Focusing on various subsystems (e.g., the personality system, the social system, and the cultural system), he argued that such systems are interdependent and interact regularly and a change in any of the subsystems changes the system as a whole. He placed substantial emphasis on the notion of system equilibrium and argued that four prerequisites are necessary for social system maintenance: pattern maintenance, adaptation, goal attainment, and integration. When applied to the field of international politics on an international level, he postulated that common values and procedural consensus would be integral to having equilibrium and international stability.
The study of the role of NGOs and other nonstate actors in world politics is almost as old as the contemporary study of international organization itself. Pioneers in the exploration nonstate actors from a more implicit interdependence perspective include White (1952), Haas (1958), Wolfers (1959, 1962), Alger (1963), Lador-Lederer (1963), Angell (1969), Skjelsbaek (1971), Feld (1972), and Kriesberg (1972). A proliferation of studies followed regarding various aspects of interdependence related to nonstate actors engagements in transnational relations. Some have a more general focus, including, for example, Gordenker and Weiss (1995), Weiss and Gordenker (1996), Florini (1999), Higgott et al. (2000), and Josselin and Wallace (2001). Others are more functionally specific. Haas (1989, 1992), Coleman (2001), Benner et al. (2002), Witte et al. (2003), and Stone (2004), for example, concentrate on transnational policy networks and epistemic communities. A plethora of studies have dealt with transnational social movements and global campaigns, including Leatherman et al. (1994), Smith et al. (1997), Khagram et al. (2002), Keck and Sikkink (1998), and Ritchie (1995). Chadwick Alger led the way in investigating the role of local communities in international organization (Alger, 1977, 1984, 2010).
Kj Holsti International Politics 15.pdf
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