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Money Talks - A Realist Constructivist Account of the Motives of 21st Century Plutocrats

Parviainen, Pauliina LU (2017) SIMV07 20171
Master of Science in Global Studies
Abstract
Plutocracy is a subject that has not traditionally attracted the interest of scholars in the disciplines of International Relations and Political Science. This is unfortunate, as the number and importance of affluent private individuals in global affairs has steadily increased in recent decades. Since most existing academic research on contemporary plutocrats focuses on philanthropists and other ‘benefactors’, this research examines what drives the behaviour of the so-called ‘malefactors’ – in this case, enormously wealthy citizens from the Persian Gulf who fund Islamist extremism and the Koch brothers who fight against climate change mitigation efforts and U.S. government regulations. The research is guided by a realist constructivist... (More)
Plutocracy is a subject that has not traditionally attracted the interest of scholars in the disciplines of International Relations and Political Science. This is unfortunate, as the number and importance of affluent private individuals in global affairs has steadily increased in recent decades. Since most existing academic research on contemporary plutocrats focuses on philanthropists and other ‘benefactors’, this research examines what drives the behaviour of the so-called ‘malefactors’ – in this case, enormously wealthy citizens from the Persian Gulf who fund Islamist extremism and the Koch brothers who fight against climate change mitigation efforts and U.S. government regulations. The research is guided by a realist constructivist hypothesis according to which plutocrats use their material assets to advance ideological causes that in the long run further increase their economic wealth. Qualitative content analysis was performed on select texts that dealt with these actors’ presumable and stated motives. The analysis of the Koch brothers suggested that the logic behind their political adventures closely followed this hypothesis. However, the case of Gulf plutocrats only partially confirmed the hypothesis, as ideological and identity-related reasons prevailed over material considerations in these actors’ motives. (Less)
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author
Parviainen, Pauliina LU
supervisor
organization
course
SIMV07 20171
year
type
H2 - Master's Degree (Two Years)
subject
keywords
first image, Koch, plutocrat, realist constructivism, terrorism financing
language
English
additional info
** Automatic update: Record was moved from Department of Political Science (012015000), Master of Science in Global Studies (LURS00004), International Office (LURS00001) to Master of Science in Global Studies (LURS00004) at 2026-02-09 11:33:06
id
8910411
date added to LUP
2017-07-03 12:48:08
date last changed
2026-02-09 11:33:06
@misc{8910411,
  abstract     = {{Plutocracy is a subject that has not traditionally attracted the interest of scholars in the disciplines of International Relations and Political Science. This is unfortunate, as the number and importance of affluent private individuals in global affairs has steadily increased in recent decades. Since most existing academic research on contemporary plutocrats focuses on philanthropists and other ‘benefactors’, this research examines what drives the behaviour of the so-called ‘malefactors’ – in this case, enormously wealthy citizens from the Persian Gulf who fund Islamist extremism and the Koch brothers who fight against climate change mitigation efforts and U.S. government regulations. The research is guided by a realist constructivist hypothesis according to which plutocrats use their material assets to advance ideological causes that in the long run further increase their economic wealth. Qualitative content analysis was performed on select texts that dealt with these actors’ presumable and stated motives. The analysis of the Koch brothers suggested that the logic behind their political adventures closely followed this hypothesis. However, the case of Gulf plutocrats only partially confirmed the hypothesis, as ideological and identity-related reasons prevailed over material considerations in these actors’ motives.}},
  author       = {{Parviainen, Pauliina}},
  language     = {{eng}},
  note         = {{Student Paper}},
  title        = {{Money Talks - A Realist Constructivist Account of the Motives of 21st Century Plutocrats}},
  year         = {{2017}},
}