Massive Institutional Structures in Global Governance

2021 ◽  
pp. 1-023
Author(s):  
Rakhyun E. Kim ◽  
Jean-Frédéric Morin
Keyword(s):  
Global Governance ◽  
Dynamic Network ◽  
Trade And Environment ◽  
Institutional Interaction ◽  
Environment Policy ◽  
Self Organized ◽  
Institutional Structures ◽  
Broad Policy ◽  
Network Of Networks ◽  
Over Time

Abstract Global governance consists of elementary regimes that form regime complexes, which in turn give rise to what we call superclusters around broad policy domains. In recent years, scholars have explored what these macroscopic structures look like and how they evolve over time. Yet the complex ways in which entire governance superclusters interact and coevolve, and what might emerge through this process, have not received much attention. In this article, we expand the ontological frontier of global governance research by offering a first bird’s-eye view on supercluster-level institutional interaction with an empirical focus on trade and environment. We constructed and analyzed a dynamic network-of-networks model, revealing a supercluster complex, a massive institutional structure in global governance consisting of two or more interlocking superclusters that exert a measurable influence on each other’s course of development. We theorize that the supercluster complex serves as an institutional fabric that enables the degree of self-organized coordination observed between the trade and environment policy domains. Our preliminary findings warrant more research on supercluster complexes as an important but little-noticed phenomenon in global governance.

scholarly journals The Trade and Environment Debate: Relevant for Southern Agriculture?

1994 ◽  
Vol 26 (1) ◽  
pp. 108-128 ◽  
Author(s):  
Mary A. Marchant ◽  
Nicole Ballenger
Keyword(s):  
United States ◽  
The United States ◽  
Environmental Standards ◽  
Trade And Environment ◽  
Agricultural Producers ◽  
International Debate ◽  
Policy Issues ◽  
Environment Policy ◽  
Know How ◽  
Trade Measures

AbstractThis paper introduces and briefly discusses the economics of two important trade and environment policy issues--international harmonization of environmental standards and the use of trade measures for environmental purposes. Both issues are likely to generate lively international debate among environmentalists, industry representatives, and trade negotiators over the next few years. As the international community seeks new multilateral rules in these areas, agricultural producers will want to know how they will be affected. Thus, this paper also examines the potential impacts of environmental policy on the competitiveness of commodities unique to the Southern region of the United States.

scholarly journals Ordering global governance complexes: The evolution of the governance complex for international civil aviation

2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Mette Eilstrup-Sangiovanni
Keyword(s):  
Global Governance ◽  
International Institutions ◽  
Historical Data ◽  
Civil Aviation ◽  
Top Down ◽  
Bottom Up ◽  
Governance Systems ◽  
Governance Effectiveness ◽  
Political Agents ◽  
Over Time

AbstractMany observers worry that growing numbers of international institutions with overlapping functions undermine governance effectiveness via duplication, inconsistency and conflict. Such pessimistic assessments may undervalue the mechanisms available to states and other political agents to reduce conflictual overlap and enhance inter-institutional synergy. Drawing on historical data I examine how states can mitigate conflict within Global Governance Complexes (GGCs) by dissolving or merging existing institutions or by re-configuring their mandates. I further explore how “order in complexity” can emerge through bottom-up processes of adaptation in lieu of state-led reform. My analysis supports three theoretical claims: (1) states frequently refashion governance complexes “top-down” in order to reduce conflictual overlap; (2) “top-down” restructuring and “bottom-up” adaptation present alternative mechanisms for ordering relations among component institutions of GGCs; (3) these twin mechanisms ensure that GGCs tend to (re)produce elements of order over time–albeit often temporarily. Rather than evolving towards ever-greater fragmentation and disorder, complex governance systems thus tend to fluctuate between greater or lesser integration and (dis)order.

The dynamic nature of depression: a new micro-level perspective of mental disorder that meets current challenges

2013 ◽  
Vol 44 (7) ◽  
pp. 1349-1360 ◽  
Author(s):  
M. Wichers
Keyword(s):  
Dynamic Network ◽  
Building Blocks ◽  
Major Depressive ◽  
Dynamic Network Model ◽  
Healthy State ◽  
Behavioural Patterns ◽  
Micro Level ◽  
Continuous Dynamic ◽  
Dynamic Interplay ◽  
Over Time

The examination of moment-to-moment, ‘micro-level’ patterns of experience and behaviour using experience sampling methodology has contributed to our understanding of the ‘macro-level’ development of full-blown symptoms and disorders. This paper argues that the micro-level perspective can be used to identify the smallest building blocks underlying the onset and course of mental ill-health. Psychopathology may be the result of the continuous dynamic interplay between micro-level moment-to-moment experiences and behavioural patterns over time. Reinforcing loops between momentary states may alter the course of mental health towards either a more or less healthy state. An example with observed data, from a population of individuals with depressive symptoms, supports the validity of a dynamic network model of psychopathology and shows that together and over time, this continuous interplay between momentary states may result in the cluster of symptoms we call major depressive disorder. This approach may help conceptualize the nature of mental disorders, and generate individualized insights useful for diagnosis and treatment in psychiatry.

scholarly journals Emerging, crystalizing, and changing psychological contracts over time: Introducing the iPC-network model

2019 ◽  
Author(s):  
Tim Vantilborgh
Keyword(s):  
Network Model ◽  
Psychological Contract ◽  
Dynamic Network ◽  
Network Models ◽  
Psychological Contracts ◽  
Exchange Relationships ◽  
Contract Breach ◽  
Alternative Approach ◽  
The Individual ◽  
Over Time

This chapter introduces the individual Psychological Contract (iPC) network model as an alternative approach to study psychological contracts. This model departs from the basic idea that a psychological contract forms a mental schema containing obligated inducements and contributions, which are exchanged for each other. This mental schema is captured by a dynamic network, in which the nodes represent the inducements and contributions and the ties represent the exchanges. Building on dynamic systems theory, I propose that these networks evolve over time towards attractor states, both at the level of the network structure and at the level of the nodes (i.e., breach and fulfilment attractor states). I highlight how the iPC-network model integrates recent theoretical developments in the psychological contract literature and explain how it may advance scholars understanding of exchange relationships. In particular, I illustrate how iPC-network models allow researchers to study the actual exchanges in the psychological contract over time, while acknowledging its idiosyncratic nature. This would allow for more precise predictions of psychological contract breach and fulfilment consequences and explains how content and process of the psychological contract continuously influence each other.

Criticality: How Changes Preserve Stability in Self-Organizing Systems

2018 ◽  
Vol 40 (11) ◽  
pp. 1613-1629 ◽  
Author(s):  
Philippe Accard
Keyword(s):  
Complex System ◽  
System Theory ◽  
Social Systems ◽  
Theoretical Framework ◽  
Fundamental Issue ◽  
Self Organized ◽  
Self Organized Criticality ◽  
New Treatment ◽  
Over Time ◽  
Self Organizing

Self-organizing systems are social systems which are immanently and constantly recreated by agents. In a self-organizing system, agents make changes while preserving stability. If they do not preserve stability, they push the system toward chaos and cannot recreate it. How changes preserve stability is thus a fundamental issue. In current works, changes preserve stability because agents’ ability to make changes is limited by interaction rules and power. However, how agents diffuse the changes throughout the system while preserving its stability has not been addressed in these works. We have addressed this issue by borrowing from a complex system theory neglected thus far in organization theories: self-organized criticality theory. We suggest that self-organizing systems are in critical states: agents have equivalent ability to make changes, and none are able to foresee or control how their changes diffuse throughout the system. Changes, then, diffuse unpredictably – they may diffuse to small or large parts of the system or not at all, and it is this unpredictable diffusion that preserves stability in the system over time. We call our theoretical framework self-organiz ing criticality theory. It presents a new treatment of change and stability and improves the understanding of self-organizing.

Social and ideological bases of voting

2018 ◽  
pp. 63-81
Author(s):  
John Garry
Keyword(s):  
Voting Behaviour ◽  
Left Wing ◽  
Party Choice ◽  
Electoral Support ◽  
Demographic Traits ◽  
The Social ◽  
Major Player ◽  
Irish Case ◽  
Broad Policy ◽  
Over Time

This chapter examines the social and ideological bases of voting behaviour in 2016. Referring to the classic debates in the comparative literature on political cleavages and upon earlier empirical investigations of the Irish case, the core question the chapter seeks to answer is whether there may be a strong link between voters’ socio-demographic traits, their broad policy beliefs and their party choice in this election. Building upon a similar study of the 2011 election, which found evidence of the emergence of class-based politics, the analysis on this occasion reveals some interesting trends, particularly relating to Sinn Féin. Its steady rise in electoral support over time has seen it emerge as a major player in Irish party politics, with important implications for how we might view the ideological basis of voting behaviour in Ireland. The analysis in this chapter finds that Sinn Féin’s strong socio-demographic profile (working class, left-wing and in favour of Irish unity) sets it apart from the other major parties, differentiating it in terms that would be familiar in a political cleavage-based analysis.

scholarly journals Evolution of communities of software: using tensor decompositions to compare software ecosystems

2019 ◽  
Vol 4 (1) ◽  
Author(s):  
Oliver A. Blanthorn ◽  
Colin M. Caine ◽  
Eva M. Navarro-López
Keyword(s):  
Dynamic Network ◽  
Tensor Decomposition ◽  
Software Projects ◽  
R Software ◽  
Tensor Decompositions ◽  
Software Ecosystems ◽  
Software Libraries ◽  
Dependency Networks ◽  
Software Packages ◽  
Over Time

AbstractModern software development is often a collaborative effort involving many authors through the re-use and sharing of code through software libraries. Modern software “ecosystems” are complex socio-technical systems which can be represented as a multilayer dynamic network. Many of these libraries and software packages are open-source and developed in the open on sites such as , so there is a large amount of data available about these networks. Studying these networks could be of interest to anyone choosing or designing a programming language. In this work, we use tensor factorisation to explore the dynamics of communities of software, and then compare these dynamics between languages on a dataset of approximately 1 million software projects. We hope to be able to inform the debate on software dependencies that has been recently re-ignited by the malicious takeover of the npm package and other incidents through giving a clearer picture of the structure of software dependency networks, and by exploring how the choices of language designers—for example, in the size of standard libraries, or the standards to which packages are held before admission to a language ecosystem is granted—may have shaped their language ecosystems. We establish that adjusted mutual information is a valid metric by which to assess the number of communities in a tensor decomposition and find that there are striking differences between the communities found across different software ecosystems and that communities do experience large and interpretable changes in activity over time. The differences between the elm and R software ecosystems, which see some communities decline over time, and the more conventional software ecosystems of Python, Java and JavaScript, which do not see many declining communities, are particularly marked.

scholarly journals Selection and spatial arrangement of building materials during the construction of nest turrets by grass-cutting ants

2020 ◽  
Vol 7 (10) ◽  
pp. 201312
Author(s):  
Daniela Römer ◽  
Marcela I. Cosarinsky ◽  
Flavio Roces
Keyword(s):  
Building Materials ◽  
Material Selection ◽  
Spatial Location ◽  
Spatial Arrangement ◽  
The Self ◽  
Nest Entrance ◽  
Self Organized ◽  
The Impact ◽  
Over Time ◽  
Selection Of

Ants build complex nest structures by reacting to simple, local stimuli. While underground nests result from the space generated by digging, some leaf- and grass-cutting ants also construct conspicuous aboveground turrets around nest openings. We investigated whether the selection of specific building materials occurs during turret construction in Acromyrmex fracticornis grass-cutting ants, and asked whether single building decisions at the beginning can modify the final turret architecture. To quantify workers' material selection, the original nest turret was removed and a choice between two artificial building materials, thin and thick sticks, was offered for rebuilding. Workers preferred thick sticks at the very beginning of turret construction, showed varying preferences thereafter, and changed to prefer thin sticks for the upper, final part of the turret, indicating that they selected different building materials over time to create a stable structure. The impact of a single building choice on turret architecture was evaluated by placing artificial beams that divided a colony's nest entrance at the beginning of turret rebuilding. Splitting the nest entrance led to the self-organized construction of turrets with branched galleries ending in multiple openings, showing that the spatial location of a single building material can strongly influence turret morphology.

scholarly journals Fluctuation-induced distributed resonances in oscillatory networks

2019 ◽  
Vol 5 (7) ◽  
pp. eaav1027 ◽  
Author(s):  
Xiaozhu Zhang ◽  
Sarah Hallerberg ◽  
Moritz Matthiae ◽  
Dirk Witthaut ◽  
Marc Timme
Keyword(s):  
Dynamic Network ◽  
Intermediate Frequency ◽  
Response Patterns ◽  
Low Frequencies ◽  
High Frequencies ◽  
Self Organized ◽  
Oscillatory Networks ◽  
Input Signals ◽  
Induce Response ◽  
And Control

Across physics, biology, and engineering, the collective dynamics of oscillatory networks often evolve into self-organized operating states. How such networks respond to external fluctuating signals fundamentally underlies their function, yet is not well understood. Here, we present a theory of dynamic network response patterns and reveal how distributed resonance patterns emerge in oscillatory networks once the dynamics of the oscillatory units become more than one-dimensional. The network resonances are topology specific and emerge at an intermediate frequency content of the input signals, between global yet homogeneous responses at low frequencies and localized responses at high frequencies. Our analysis reveals why these patterns arise and where in the network they are most prominent. These results may thus provide general theoretical insights into how fluctuating signals induce response patterns in networked systems and simultaneously help to develop practical guiding principles for real-world network design and control.

Governing the Environment: Three Motivating Factors

2015 ◽  
Vol 29 (4) ◽  
pp. 433-442 ◽  
Author(s):  
Susan Park
Keyword(s):  
Global Governance ◽  
Evolutionary Change ◽  
The Internet ◽  
Motivating Factors ◽  
Global Level ◽  
Governance Arrangements ◽  
Over Time

Governance arrangements have become increasingly complex over time, such that today everything from the Internet to medicine and warfare is subject to some form of governance at the global level. Notably, these changes in global governance can come slowly or quickly, depending on circumstances. For example, evolutionary change is evident in the establishment of new treaties and protocols on regulating the various aspects of war and its aftermath—an area where the list of agreements is long and growing. But change can also happen very quickly as new mechanisms—for example, for coordinating states’ responses during pandemics—are established during crises.

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