Perception of the Structural Balance of Part of the International System of Nations
| Published date | 01 March 1967 |
| DOI | 10.1177/002234336700400106 |
| Author | Peter Abell,Robin Jenkins |
| Date | 01 March 1967 |
| Subject Matter | Articles |
Research
Communication:
PERCEPTION
OF
THE
STRUCTURAL
BALANCE
OF
PART
OF
THE
INTERNATIONAL
SYSTEM
OF
NATIONS*
By
PETER ABELL and
ROBIN
JENKINS
University
of
Essex
University
of
Lancaster
1.
Introduction
The
work
reported
here
is
a
preliminary
to
a
much
more
extensive
study
of
the
structural
balance
of
the
international
system
of
nations.
The
purpose
of
this
more
extensive
inquiry
is
to
study
both
the
per-
ception
of
balance
and
the
objective
bal-
ance
between
nations,
measured
accord-
ing
to
different
types
of
positive
and
nega-
tive
relationships
existing
between
them,
and
also
to
elaborate
a
theoretical
ap-
proach
to
international
relations
which
can
accomodate
the
interaction
of
vari-
ables
at
the
personality
and
social
struc-
tural
levels.
Throughout
the
whole
pro-
ject,
a
systematic
attempt
will
be
made
to
employ
mathematical
models
to
relate
the
various
variables.
We
emphasize
that
this
paper
is
very
preliminary;
indeed,
all
the
results
are
negative
in
the
sense
that
the
hypotheses
which
we
tested
have
not
been
corroborated.
Nevertheless,
since
we
find
these
results
surprisingly
counter-intuitive,
it
was
thought
worthwhile
to
report
them
at
this
early
stage.
The
theory
of
structural
balance
as
developed
by
Harary2
has
been
used
in
a
variety
of
experimental
situations
to
study
positive
and
negative
symmetrical
rela-
tions
between
persons3
and
conceptual
entities.4
Unfortunately,
the
theory
has
only
very
infrequently
been
applied
to
any
large-scale
phenomena.5
We
hope
to
remedy
this
situation
and,
at
the
same
time,
to
extend
the
theory
to
include
non-svmmetric
relations.6
6
The
results
contained
in
this
paper
are
the
product
of
a
questionnaire
adminis-
tered
to
203
first-year
university
students.
The
paper
is
divided
into
five
sections.
Section
2
is
a
theoretical
introduction
to
structural
balance,
the
open
and
closed
dimensions
of
cognition,
and
the
social
background
variable.
Section
3
deals
with
the
questionnaire;
section
4
contains
the
re-
sults,
and
section
5
contains
a
discussion
of
the
results
and
some
of
their
implications.
2.
Theory
2.1
The
theory
of
structural
balance.
Consider
a
set
P
of
points
(nations
in
our
experi-
ment)
and
two
types
of
non-reflexive,
symmetrical
relations,
F
and
E,
which
map
P
into
itself.
A
structure
like
this
may
be
represented
by
a
graph
where
points
in
a
plane
designate
the
set
P,
and
lines
(arcs)
joining
the
points
designate
the
re-
lations.
There
will,
therefore,
be
two
dis-
tinct
types
of
arc
corresponding
to
F and
E.
If
we
stipulate
that
either
F
or
E
holds
between
each
pair
of
points,
then
the
struc-
ture
is
complete.
In
this
paper
we
are
con-
cerned
with
complete
structures
only.
Now
consider
any
sub-set
of
P
contain-
ing
three
distinct
points,
a,
b,
and
c.
Then
this
triad
(3-cycle)
is
balanced
if
and
only
if
one
of
the
following
three
axioms
holds:
A
complete
graph
of
N
points
will
con-
sist
of
(~)
such
3-cycles.
Now
if
the
rela-
3
/
tion
F
is
given
a
positive
( -~)
sign
and
the
relation
E
a
negative
(-)
sign,
then
the
sign
of
any
three
cycle
may
be
defined
as
the
algebraic
product
of
the
signs
of
its
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