ABSTRACT
Constructivism is a way of studying social relations such as any kind of social relations. Fundamental to constructivism is the proposition that human beings are social beings, and one would not be human but for the social relations. Rules make agents out of individual human beings by giving them opportunities to act upon the world. The practical solution is to start with rules and show how rules make agents and institutions what they are in relation to each other. This chapter shows how rules make rule, and being ruled, a universal social experience. The remainder of user's manual is dedicated to several tasks. In the process, it introduces many additional concepts and propositions, expressed in the simplest terms that its author can think of. Institutions such as the balance of power, spheres of influence, and treaties are simple because observers can easily pick them out of an institutional environment characterized by a large number of linked rules and related practices.
