Economic Interdependence: The Functionalist View on East-West Economic Relations

Peter Ham
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Peter Ham: University of Leiden

Chapter 1 in Western Doctrines on East-West Trade, 1992, pp 21-34 from Palgrave Macmillan

Abstract: Abstract It is a law of physics that close contact between rapidly moving bodies results in friction; a scientific notion corroborated by the saying ‘familiarity breeds contempt’. In the social sciences and humanities, however, such ‘laws’ do not exist. People and societies tend to evade rigid regularities; they are not subject to one, relatively simple all-embracing law which guides their behavior. Consequently, apart from ‘familiarity breeds contempt’, one could suggest a plethora of other hypotheses, such as intensive communication leads to mutual understanding, or trade fosters peace. Both postulates are based on pre-theory, rather commonsensical observations on the relationship between the level of contact and the amount of conflict among people and nations. We will here focus on the theoretical presumptions pertaining to the strategies of East-West economic interdependence.

Keywords: Economic Relation; Tension Reduction; Communist Country; Economic Interdependence; Functionalist View (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 1992
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Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:pal:palchp:978-1-349-12610-1_2

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DOI: 10.1007/978-1-349-12610-1_2

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