ABSTRACT
We have now presented some basic argumentation about the ontological criteria of causal explanation and the causal interrelationships between agency and structure. Given that Wendt (and others) developed their analyses in part as a component of a critical analysis of structural realism, we too turn our attention to structural realism. A critique of structural realism, in particular structural realism’s inability to explain social transformation, permits us both to demonstrate the utility of our formulations and to demonstrate weaknesses in the arguments of other agent-structure analysts. What is more, this critique reveals some elements of a strategy for the explanation of variation in the institution of self-help recognized as a crucial object of analysis by a number of scholars.1
