scholarly journals Clubs of autocrats: Regional organizations and authoritarian survival

2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Maria J. Debre
Keyword(s):  
Domestic Politics ◽  
External Interference ◽  
Regional Organizations ◽  
Member States ◽  
Political Dissent ◽  
Civil Unrest ◽  
Autocratic Regimes ◽  
Regime Survival ◽  
Political Turmoil ◽  
Authoritarian Survival

AbstractWhile scholars have argued that membership in Regional Organizations (ROs) can increase the likelihood of democratization, we see many autocratic regimes surviving in power albeit being members of several ROs. This article argues that this is the case because these regimes are often members in “Clubs of Autocrats” that supply material and ideational resources to strengthen domestic survival politics and shield members from external interference during moments of political turmoil. The argument is supported by survival analysis testing the effect of membership in autocratic ROs on regime survival between 1946 to 2010. It finds that membership in ROs composed of more autocratic member states does in fact raise the likelihood of regime survival by protecting incumbents against democratic challenges such as civil unrest or political dissent. However, autocratic RO membership does not help to prevent regime breakdown due to autocratic challenges like military coups, potentially because these types of threats are less likely to diffuse to other member states. The article thereby adds to our understanding of the limits of democratization and potential reverse effects of international cooperation, and contributes to the literature addressing interdependences of international and domestic politics in autocratic regimes.

8. EU Enlargement and Wider Europe

2018 ◽  
pp. 167-192 ◽  
Author(s):  
Ulrich Sedelmeier ◽  
Graham Avery
Keyword(s):  
Soft Power ◽  
Domestic Politics ◽  
Eu Enlargement ◽  
European Neighbourhood Policy ◽  
Member States ◽  
The Balkans ◽  
European Model ◽  
Balkan Countries ◽  
The Future ◽  
The Eu

The EU has expanded many times and many countries still aspire to join. It has extended the prospect of membership to countries in the Balkans and Turkey and has developed a ‘neighbourhood’ policy towards other countries, some of which may want to join in the future. Enlargement illustrates the success of the European model of integration. It has also provided the EU with a powerful tool to influence domestic politics in would-be members. But enlargement also poses fundamental challenges. It has implications both for how the EU works (its structure and institutions) and for what it does (its policies). The chapter first compares ‘widening’ and ‘deepening’ before discussing enlargement as soft power. It then explains how the EU has expanded and why countries want to join. It also looks at prospective member states: the Balkan countries, Turkey, Norway, Switzerland, and Iceland. Finally, it examines the European Neighbourhood Policy.

14. Europeanization, Euroscepticism, and Politicization in Party Politics

2020 ◽  
pp. 331-353
Author(s):  
Paul Taggart
Keyword(s):  
European Integration ◽  
Domestic Politics ◽  
Party Systems ◽  
Party Politics ◽  
Member States ◽  
History Of ◽  
Over Time ◽  
The Eu

The development of European integration has meant that member states have experienced Europeanization and as a consequence the EU has become a more politicized issue in domestic politics. Politicization has come over time and as a consequence of the decline of a permissive consensus and takes some very different forms. The chapter considers the place of the domestic politicization of European integration in theories of European integration and then reviews different periods of the history of European integration, highlighting the growing phenomena of Europeanization and politicization. The chapter then looks at Euroscepticism and its meaning and different forms and identifying which parties can currently be identified as Eurosceptic and what issues Euroscepticism blends with in different member states. The chapter then offers a typology for understanding the different ways in which the politicization of European integration plays out in the party systems of member states.

Regional Organizations

2019 ◽  
pp. 36-67
Author(s):  
Tan Hsien-Li
Keyword(s):  
International Law ◽  
International Organizations ◽  
Asia Pacific ◽  
Regional Organizations ◽  
Member States ◽  
Regional Institutions ◽  
History Of ◽  
Definition Of ◽  
The Relationship

This chapter examines the relationship that Asia-Pacific regional and sub-regional organizations have with international law, looking at seven international organizations that span the region. It is commonly believed that the member states of Asia-Pacific regional organizations prefer less formalized institutions and fewer binding commitments. Conventional reasons for this include their history of colonialism, less legalistic and formalized cultures, and a preference for stricter conceptions of sovereignty. As such, their organizations are often perceived as less effective. However, the effectiveness of Asia-Pacific regional institutions should not be judged by one uniform standard. Instead they should be judged on their own definition of effectiveness. There should be a broader understanding that Asia-Pacific states consciously use and participate in their regional organizations differently than in other regions, and they may prefer less institutionalized models as these serve their purposes better and can still be successful.

scholarly journals Reforming the Institutions of Eurozone Governance

2021 ◽  
Vol 9 (2) ◽  
pp. 159-162
Author(s):  
Anna-Lena Högenauer ◽  
Moritz Rehm
Keyword(s):  
Domestic Politics ◽  
Governance Structure ◽  
Thematic Issue ◽  
Control Mechanisms ◽  
Member States ◽  
The Past ◽  
Adequate Control ◽  
Legal Control ◽  
Democratic Debate

The Eurozone has faced repeated crises and has experienced profound transformations in the past years. This thematic issue seeks to address the questions arising from the changing governance structure of the Eurozone. First, how have the negotiations, pressures of the crises and reforms impacted the relationships between key actors like EU institutions and Member States? Second, where did national positions come from and what role did domestic politics play in the negotiations? And finally, to what extent has the evolution of Eurozone governance left room for adequate control mechanisms and democratic debate? The articles in this issue highlight the developing role of Member States, domestic politics and democratic and legal control mechanisms.

scholarly journals 13. Europeanization and Political Parties

2012 ◽  
Author(s):  
Robert Ladrech
Keyword(s):  
European Union ◽  
Political Parties ◽  
Domestic Politics ◽  
Party Competition ◽  
The Political ◽  
The European Union ◽  
Member States ◽  
Long Run ◽  
Multi Level ◽  
Types Of Change

This chapter examines the ways in which the European Union and the political parties of member states interact and cause change. It considers various types of change, causal mechanisms, and the differences between parties and the EU in both older and newer member states. The chapter first provides an overview of the different partisan actors that operate in the multi-level system of domestic and EU politics before discussing the manner in which domestic political parties can be said to have ‘Europeanized’. It then shows how parties in older and newer member states differ and concludes with an assessment of the wider effects of Europeanization on domestic politics in general and party politics in particular. The chapter suggests that the EU’s influence, in both east and west, may be more significant in the long run in terms of its indirect impact on patterns of party competition.

Authoritarian Regionalism in the World of International Organizations

2019 ◽  
Author(s):  
Anastassia V. Obydenkova ◽  
Alexander Libman
Keyword(s):  
International Organizations ◽  
World Wide ◽  
World Politics ◽  
Regional Organizations ◽  
Member States ◽  
Post Cold War ◽  
The World ◽  
Important Addition ◽  
Set Up ◽  
Trade Conflicts

The post-Cold War world has witnessed the extensive development of regional international organizations world-wide. The realtionship between their membership and democratization remains a topic of intense scholarly debate. This book opens up a new aspect of the debate by examining regional organization as set up by autocracies (e.g. Iran, Saudi Arabia, Venezuela, Russia, and China)—referring to them as “non-democratic regional organizations.” How do these newly emerged organizations counteract and confront the democratization process in their own member states and beyond their borders? How and why do the political regimes, the economic development and the cultures of their member states impac the foundation and development of these organizations? What influence do these organizations have on migration, trade, conflicts, and democratization? The book addresses these questions by developing a new theory of authoritarian regionalism. Employing quantitative analysis of authoritarian regionalism world-wide and its historical development since the 1950s, as well as analysing case studies of post-Soviet Eurasia, the book argues that authoritarian regionalism is a new phenomenon in world politics and that modern non-democratic organizations differ from their historical predecessors and that their influence has radically increased in terms of geographic scope and intensity in the last few years. As such, authoritarian regionalism is an important addition to studies of comparative regionalism and the international dimension of authoritarianism. From the policy perspective, non-democratic regional organizations pose a challenge for Western actors in promoting democracy around the world.

Regional Organizations’ Relations with International Institutions

2019 ◽  
pp. 446-464
Author(s):  
Joris Larik
Keyword(s):  
European Union ◽  
International Organizations ◽  
Regional Integration ◽  
International Institutions ◽  
Legal Person ◽  
The European Union ◽  
Regional Organizations ◽  
Member States ◽  
Asean Member ◽  
External Relations

This chapter compares the law and practice of regional organizations regarding their engagement with international institutions. This includes treaty-making, joining and participating in international organizations, and the question to which extent member states are being replaced by their regional organizations. The chapter uses the European Union and the Association of South East Asian Nations (ASEAN) as case studies given that they represent two radically different forms of regional integration. While the former is a case of deep, supranational sovereignty-pooling, the latter is an example of distinctly sovereignty-friendly intergovernmental cooperation. Both ASEAN and the European Union have codified sets of internal norms for conducting their external relations. Both are avid treaty-makers and interact systematically with international institutions. However, this chapter explains how the difference in the organizations’ internal modes of operation translates into different approaches in their external relations. The European Union’s highly formalized approach leads to taking on a state-like position in many situations, but without always replacing its member states. By contrast, ASEAN’s sensitivity toward national sovereignty results in its member states and the Association never appearing together. It is always either one or the other that engages internationally. ASEAN member states interact with other powers, whereas ASEAN as a legal person interacts with other international organizations, with the one exception—the European Union.

A Desultory Defense of Democracy: OAS Resolution 1080 and the Inter-American Democratic Charter

2006 ◽  
Vol 48 (03) ◽  
pp. 93-123 ◽  
Author(s):  
Barry S. Levitt
Keyword(s):  
Foreign Policy ◽  
International Relations ◽  
Domestic Politics ◽  
State Behavior ◽  
Member States ◽  
Policy Responses ◽  
Collective Response ◽  
Competing Hypotheses ◽  
Multilateral Diplomacy

AbstractThis article evaluates the effectiveness of OAS mechanisms for safeguarding democracy through multilateral diplomacy, what some scholars have dubbed the interamerican defense of democracy regime. Drawing on a range of international relations theories, this study derives competing hypotheses about member states' responses to democratic crises in the Americas. It then analyzes all instances in which a collective response—that is, an application of Resolution 1080 or the Inter-American Democratic Charter—was debated in the OAS between 1991 and 2002. Patterns of state behavior suggest that domestic politics, rather than the structural or systemic traits of the interamerican system, best explain foreign policy responses to crises of democracy in the region. The OAS record in confronting such crises is uneven.

Why Comply? Social Learning and European Identity Change

2001 ◽  
Vol 55 (3) ◽  
pp. 553-588 ◽  
Author(s):  
Jeffrey T. Checkel
Keyword(s):  
Social Learning ◽  
International Institutions ◽  
Domestic Politics ◽  
Cost Benefit ◽  
The Other ◽  
European Identity ◽  
Identity Change ◽  
Regional Organizations ◽  
European Regional

Why do agents comply with the norms embedded in regimes and international institutions? Scholars have proposed two competing answers to this compliance puzzle, one rationalist, the other constructivist. Rationalists emphasize coercion, cost/benefit calculations, and material incentives; constructivists stress social learning, socialization, and social norms. Both schools, however, explain important aspects of compliance. To build a bridge between them, I examine the role of argumentative persuasion and social learning. This makes explicit the theory of social choice and interaction implicit in many constructivist compliance studies, and it broadens rationalist arguments about the instrumental and noninstrumental processes through which actors comply. I argue that domestic politics—in particular, institutional and historical contexts—delimit the causal role of persuasion/social learning, thus helping both rationalists and constructivists to refine the scope of their compliance claims. To assess the plausibility of these arguments, I examine why states comply with new citizenship/membership norms promoted by European regional organizations.

The Sino-DPRK Split and Origins of US-DPRK Bilateralism

2018 ◽  
pp. 73-84
Author(s):  
Eungseon Kim
Keyword(s):  
Foreign Policy ◽  
North Korea ◽  
Domestic Politics ◽  
Rapid Change ◽  
Peace Treaty ◽  
National Interests ◽  
External Interference ◽  
Kim Il Sung ◽  
The Us ◽  
The Status

North Korea has identified its official foreign policy as being focused on ‘self-reliance’ since the mid-1906s. Kim Il Sung (Kim Il-sŏng) had been long preoccupied with external interference in internal affairs, so the escalation of the Sino-Soviet schism created an environment in which to eliminate foreign influence in domestic politics and strengthen his control. North Korea did not only try to balance between the two giant socialist countries, but also expand its diplomatic sphere outside the communist bloc such as with Third World and European countries. In addition, it pursued direct contact with the US to achieve its longstanding goals, the removal of US troops stationed in the South and the replacement of the 1953 armistice with a permanent peace treaty. Since then demands for bilateral talks have become the most distinctive feature of North Korea’s foreign policy. With the advent of détente in the early 1970s, discontent with their Chinese comrades also led Kim to seek US-DPRK talks. Despite a mutual hostility generated during the era of the Cultural Revolution, Kim Il Sung’s first response to China’s rapprochement with the US was not negative, anticipating the potential for Chinese assistance in accomplishing North Korean diplomatic objectives in its relations with the US. At odds with Kim’s expectation, however, Chinese behavior did not meet North Korea’s demands. China, as well as the US, preferred the status quo to a rapid change in the region, even though they fully supported the beginnings of inter-Korean dialogue that culminated in the conclusion of the Joint Communiqué. Also, Kim Il Sung felt that, in the UN, China was more interested in seeking compromise with the US than asserting North Korea’s requests. Kim Il Sung’s dissatisfaction with China’s halfhearted stance during the détente strengthened his mistrust that Beijing did not consider North Korea’s national interests. As a result, North Korea deliberately excluded China in its offer of negotiations to the US such as the Tripartite Talks between the US and two Koreas, insisting on bilateral meetings with the US.

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