Explain how social construction influences the way world events happen, and explain how the genocide in Rwanda demonstrates this idea.

Question

What will be an ideal response?

Answer 1

Since a central idea behind constructivism is that all social relationships are constructed by people and therefore are subject to change, it follows that the central dynamics of world politics are subject to great variation over time and among different pairs or groups of states. The ideas people have and how they view other people and situations influences how they act. An example that highlights the constructivist view on the central dynamics of world politics is Rwanda, home to two main ethnic groups: the Hutus and Tutsis. The two groups date back approximately 2,000 years and were perceived by colonial powers to have slightly different physical features. Supposedly, Hutus were shorter and Tutsis had a narrower nose. After a long history as a German colony, Belgium took control of the country after World War I. In 1935, the Belgians issued identity cards identifying each Rwandan as either Hutu or Tutsi—considered by the Belgians to be different races. After almost 2,000 years, however, lineage was difficult to determine (can you trace your relatives back that far?). So, the Belgians based the identity of the two races on the physical differences, and when that was not apparent, then the number of cattle owned by the family would determine their race (families with more cattle were determined to be Tutsi) (Chretien 2003).Unfortunately, determining a person’s ethnicity based on his or her economic status had fatal consequences. The 1935 identity cards artificially constructed two groups that competed for political and economic power and left the smaller group, the Tutsis, in control of the country. Over the years, the competition intensified to the point of open conflict and revolt. In 1994, the Hutu-controlled government and militias began murdering both Tutsis and politically moderate Hutus on a massive scale. In the end, the Rwandan genocide claimed approximately 800,000 people, many of them hacked to death by their neighbors using machetes. The root of the genocide was the socially constructed race division put in place by the Belgians. To be sure, the genocide was preceded by a conflict that took years to develop and in which both sides played a part. For the Belgians’ part, they did not anticipate such a horrendous outcome. However, the actual division was socially constructed, and it killed almost a million people.