scholarly journals The rise of democratic legitimation: why international organizations speak the language of democracy

2019 ◽  
Vol 26 (3) ◽  
pp. 714-741 ◽  
Author(s):  
Klaus Dingwerth ◽  
Henning Schmidtke ◽  
Tobias Weise
Keyword(s):  
Problem Solving ◽  
Global Governance ◽  
International Organizations ◽  
Driving Forces ◽  
Dependent Manner ◽  
Two Factors ◽  
Path Dependent ◽  
Legal Expertise ◽  
Over Time ◽  
Do So

To justify their authority, international organizations (IOs) have long relied on a functional narrative that highlights effective problem-solving based on rational-legal expertise and neutrality. Today, IOs increasingly legitimize their authority in the language of democracy. Yet not all of them do so to the same extent, in the same manner, or consistently over time. In this article, we offer a comprehensive theoretical and empirical account of democratic legitimation in global governance. Our analysis builds on a new dataset, measuring the extent to which global IOs use democratic narratives in legitimizing their authority throughout the period from 1980 to 2011. The central findings are threefold. First, our data reveal a far-reaching rise of democratic legitimation in global governance. For many organizations, this increase remains relatively modest; for others, the democratic legitimation narrative becomes central. Second, this variation is mainly explained by a combination of two factors: (a) public visibility and protest constitute the driving forces of democratic legitimation and (b) IOs’ reaction to these legitimacy pressures unfolds in a path-dependent manner. Once organizations begin to take up democratic narratives, it seems to become costly to leave this path and shift to yet another set of norms. By contrast, the conventional wisdom that democratic legitimation follows in the footsteps of internationalized authority is not supported by our analysis.

An Inquiry into the Life and Death of Indicators

2015 ◽  
Vol 12 (1) ◽  
pp. 116-145
Author(s):  
Marie Guimezanes
Keyword(s):  
Global Governance ◽  
International Organizations ◽  
Aid Effectiveness ◽  
Trial And Error ◽  
Life And Death ◽  
Initial Decision ◽  
Error Process ◽  
The Impact ◽  
Over Time

This article identifies the actors and dynamics involved in the process of ‘indicatorization’ in the aid effectiveness regime, from the initial decision to use indicators to the impact the indicators’ monitoring produces. It contributes to the existing and growing literature on indicators, and gives a specific example of the use of indicators in global governance. Because of its iterative perspective, the aid effectiveness regime enables an analysis of the trial and error process in the making of indicators and of the interplay of different actors, mainly States and international organizations, over time. This case study shows how actors can ‘play’ with indicators that are supposed to define their actions, and ultimately the tension that might exist between the indicator’s logic (the uniformity of the numerical measurement) and the regime principles, based on the ownership paradigm.

scholarly journals Klaus Dingwerth, Antonia Witt, Ina Lehmann, Ellen Reichel and Tobias Weise: International Organisations under Pressure: Legitimating Global Governance in Challenging Times

2021 ◽  
Vol 56 (1) ◽  
pp. 117-123
Author(s):  
Ondřej Svoboda
Keyword(s):  
Case Studies ◽  
Global Governance ◽  
International Organizations ◽  
Path Dependence ◽  
Driving Forces ◽  
International Organisations ◽  
Member States ◽  
Multiple Origins ◽  
International Authority ◽  
Normative Expectations

The book reconstructs how the normative yardsticks that underpin evaluations of international organizations have changed since 1970. Based on in-depth case studies of normative change in five international organizations over a period of five decades, the authors argue that, these days, international organizations confront a longer and more heterogeneous list of normative expectations than in previous periods. Two changes are particularly noteworthy. First, international organizations need to demonstrate not only what they do for their member states, but also for the individuals in member states. Second, while international organizations continue to be evaluated in terms of what they achieve, they are increasingly also measured by how they operate. As the case studies reveal, the more pluralist patchwork of legitimacy principles today’s international organizations confront has multiple origins. It includes the politicization of expanding international authority, but also a range of other driving forces such as individual leadership or normative path dependence. Despite variation in the sources, however, the consequences of the normative shift are similar. Notably, a longer and more heterogenous list of normative expectations renders the legitimation of international organizations more complex. Strikingly, then, at a time when many feel international cooperation is needed more than ever, legitimating the forms in which such cooperation takes place has become most difficult. International organizations have come under pressure.

Mechanisms of Global Governance: Economic Analysis

2013 ◽  
pp. 4-28 ◽  
Author(s):  
L. Grigoryev ◽  
A. Kurdin
Keyword(s):  
Property Rights ◽  
Economic Analysis ◽  
Global Governance ◽  
International Organizations ◽  
Economic Activity ◽  
Global Level ◽  
Narrow Sense ◽  
Key Characteristics ◽  
Global Problems

The coordination of economic activity at the global level is carried out through different mechanisms, which regulate activities of companies, states, international organizations. In spite of wide diversity of entrenched mechanisms of governance in different areas, they can be classified on the basis of key characteristics, including distribution of property rights, mechanisms of governance (in the narrow sense according to O. Williamson), mechanisms of expansion. This approach can contribute not only to classifying existing institutions but also to designing new ones. The modern aggravation of global problems may require rethinking mechanisms of global governance. The authors offer the universal framework for considering this problem and its possible solutions.

The Role of Vascular Aging in Atherosclerotic Plaque Development and Vulnerability

2019 ◽  
Vol 25 (29) ◽  
pp. 3098-3111 ◽  
Author(s):  
Luca Liberale ◽  
Giovanni G. Camici
Keyword(s):  
Atherosclerotic Plaque ◽  
Molecular Mechanisms ◽  
Driving Forces ◽  
Plaque Burden ◽  
Vascular Aging ◽  
Age Related ◽  
Plaque Development ◽  
Increased Risk ◽  
The Impact ◽  
Over Time

Background: The ongoing demographical shift is leading to an unprecedented aging of the population. As a consequence, the prevalence of age-related diseases, such as atherosclerosis and its thrombotic complications is set to increase in the near future. Endothelial dysfunction and vascular stiffening characterize arterial aging and set the stage for the development of cardiovascular diseases. Atherosclerotic plaques evolve over time, the extent to which these changes might affect their stability and predispose to sudden complications remains to be determined. Recent advances in imaging technology will allow for longitudinal prospective studies following the progression of plaque burden aimed at better characterizing changes over time associated with plaque stability or rupture. Oxidative stress and inflammation, firmly established driving forces of age-related CV dysfunction, also play an important role in atherosclerotic plaque destabilization and rupture. Several genes involved in lifespan determination are known regulator of redox cellular balance and pre-clinical evidence underlines their pathophysiological roles in age-related cardiovascular dysfunction and atherosclerosis. Objective: The aim of this narrative review is to examine the impact of aging on arterial function and atherosclerotic plaque development. Furthermore, we report how molecular mechanisms of vascular aging might regulate age-related plaque modifications and how this may help to identify novel therapeutic targets to attenuate the increased risk of CV disease in elderly people.

Earnings Management and Capital Resource Allocation: Evidence from China's Accounting-Based Regulation of Rights Issues

2004 ◽  
Vol 79 (3) ◽  
pp. 645-665 ◽  
Author(s):  
Kevin C. W. Chen ◽  
Hongqi Yuan
Keyword(s):  
Resource Allocation ◽  
Earnings Management ◽  
Listed Companies ◽  
Return On Equity ◽  
Rights Issue ◽  
Rights Issues ◽  
Over Time ◽  
Do So

From 1996 to 1998, listed companies in China were required to achieve a minimum return on equity (ROE) of 10 percent in each of the previous three years before they could apply for permission to issue additional shares. As a result of this rule, there was a heavy concentration of ROEs in the area just above 10 percent. We show that the Chinese regulators appear to have scrutinized firms using excess amounts of nonoperating income to reach the 10 percent hurdle. In addition, their ability to do so seems to have improved over time, which allows them to be better able to identify firms that subsequently performed better. However, many firms were still able to gain rights issue approval through excess nonoperating income. We show that these firms subsequently underperformed other approved firms that did not use the same practice, indicating that the Chinese regulators' objective of guiding capital resources toward the well-performing sectors is partially compromised by earnings management.

Accountability in Global Governance

2020 ◽  
Author(s):  
Gisela Hirschmann
Keyword(s):  
Human Rights ◽  
Global Governance ◽  
International Organizations ◽  
Third Parties ◽  
Human Rights Violations ◽  
The European Union ◽  
Economic Rights ◽  
The Right ◽  
Austerity Policy ◽  
Comprehensive Study

How can international organizations (IOs) like the United Nations (UN) and their implementing partners be held accountable if their actions and policies violate fundamental human rights? Political scientists and legal scholars have shed a much-needed light on the limits of traditional accountability when it comes to complex global governance. However, conventional studies on IO accountability fail to systematically analyze a related, puzzling empirical trend: human rights violations that occur in the context of global governance do not go unnoticed altogether; they are investigated and sanctioned by independent third parties. This book puts forward the concept of pluralist accountability, whereby third parties hold IOs and their implementing partners accountable for human rights violations. We can expect pluralist accountability to evolve if a competitive environment stimulates third parties to enact accountability and if the implementing actors are vulnerable to human rights demands. Based on a comprehensive study of UN-mandated operations in Afghanistan, Bosnia, and Kosovo, the European Union Troika’s austerity policy, and global public–private health partnerships in India, this book demonstrates how competition and human rights vulnerability shape the evolution of pluralist accountability in response to diverse human rights violations, such as human trafficking, the violation of the rights of detainees, economic rights, and the right to consent in clinical trials. While highlighting the importance of studying alternative accountability mechanisms, this book also argues that pluralist accountability should not be regarded as a panacea for IOs’ legitimacy problems, as it is often less legalized and might cause multiple accountability disorder.

Time in International Organizations and International Organizations in Time

2019 ◽  
Author(s):  
Eugénia C. Heldt
Keyword(s):  
International Organizations ◽  
Path Dependence ◽  
Time Pressure ◽  
Temporal Dimension ◽  
Incremental Change ◽  
Critical Junctures ◽  
Pressure Time ◽  
Multilateral System ◽  
System Time ◽  
Over Time

Time plays a central role in international organizations (IOs). Interactions among actors are embedded in a temporal dimension, and actors use formal and informal time rules, time discourses, and time pressure to obtain concessions from their counterparts. By the same token, legacies and innovations within and outside IOs can be examined as a dynamic process evolving over time. Against this background, this chapter has a twofold aim. First, it examines how actors use time in IOs with a particular focus on multilateral negotiations to justify their actions. Drawing on international relations studies and negotiation analysis, this piece explores six different dimensions of time in the multilateral system: time pressure, time discourse, time rules, time costs, time horizons, and time as a resource. Second, this chapter delineates the evolution of IOs over time with the focus on innovations that emerge to adapt their institutional system to new political and economic circumstances. This piece looks particularly at endogenous and exogenous changes in IOs, recurring to central concepts used by historical institutionalism, including path dependence, critical junctures, and sequencing. This allows us to map patterns of incremental change, such as displacement, conversion, drift, and layering.

scholarly journals Students’ agency, creative reasoning, and collaboration in mathematical problem solving

2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Ellen Kristine Solbrekke Hansen
Keyword(s):  
Problem Solving ◽  
Driving Forces ◽  
Mathematical Reasoning ◽  
Mathematical Problem ◽  
Linear Functions ◽  
Shared Understanding ◽  
Interaction Patterns ◽  
Collaborative Processes ◽  
Mathematical Properties ◽  
Shared Agency

AbstractThis paper aims to give detailed insights of interactional aspects of students’ agency, reasoning, and collaboration, in their attempt to solve a linear function problem together. Four student pairs from a Norwegian upper secondary school suggested and explained ideas, tested it out, and evaluated their solution methods. The student–student interactions were studied by characterizing students’ individual mathematical reasoning, collaborative processes, and exercised agency. In the analysis, two interaction patterns emerged from the roles in how a student engaged or refrained from engaging in the collaborative work. Students’ engagement reveals aspects of how collaborative processes and mathematical reasoning co-exist with their agencies, through two ways of interacting: bi-directional interaction and one-directional interaction. Four student pairs illuminate how different roles in their collaboration are connected to shared agency or individual agency for merging knowledge together in shared understanding. In one-directional interactions, students engaged with different agencies as a primary agent, leading the conversation, making suggestions and explanations sometimes anchored in mathematical properties, or, as a secondary agent, listening and attempting to understand ideas are expressed by a peer. A secondary agent rarely reasoned mathematically. Both students attempted to collaborate, but rarely or never disagreed. The interactional pattern in bi-directional interactions highlights a mutual attempt to collaborate where both students were the driving forces of the problem-solving process. Students acted with similar roles where both were exercising a shared agency, building the final argument together by suggesting, accepting, listening, and negotiating mathematical properties. A critical variable for such a successful interaction was the collaborative process of repairing their shared understanding and reasoning anchored in mathematical properties of linear functions.

Angling for Influence: Institutional Proliferation in Development Banking

2020 ◽  
Author(s):  
Tyler Pratt
Keyword(s):  
Decision Making ◽  
World Bank ◽  
Global Governance ◽  
International Organizations ◽  
Market Failures ◽  
Multilateral Development Banks ◽  
Institutional Control ◽  
Bretton Woods ◽  
Global Power ◽  
Identification Strategy

Abstract Why do states build new international organizations (IOs) in issue areas where many institutions already exist? Prevailing theories of institutional creation emphasize their ability to resolve market failures, but adding new IOs can increase uncertainty and rule inconsistency. I argue that institutional proliferation occurs when existing IOs fail to adapt to shifts in state power. Member states expect decision-making rules to reflect their underlying power; when it does not, they demand greater influence in the organization. Subsequent bargaining over the redistribution of IO influence often fails due to credibility and information problems. As a result, under-represented states construct new organizations that provide them with greater institutional control. To test this argument, I examine the proliferation of multilateral development banks since 1944. I leverage a novel identification strategy rooted in the allocation of World Bank votes at Bretton Woods to show that the probability of institutional proliferation is higher when power is misaligned in existing institutions. My results suggest that conflict over shifts in global power contribute to the fragmentation of global governance.

scholarly journals Diasporic Foreign Policy Interest Groups in the United States: Democracy, Conflict, and Political Entrepreneurship

2021 ◽  
pp. 1-18
Author(s):  
Shubha Kamala Prasad ◽  
Filip Savatic
Keyword(s):  
United States ◽  
Foreign Policy ◽  
Interest Groups ◽  
The United States ◽  
Democratic Governance ◽  
Indian American ◽  
Two Factors ◽  
Political Entrepreneurs ◽  
Do So ◽  
Policy Interest

Why do some immigrant diasporas in the United States (U.S.) establish foreign policy interest groups while others do not? While scholars have demonstrated that diasporic interest groups often successfully influence U.S. foreign policy, we take a step back to ask why only certain diasporas attempt to do so in the first place. We argue that two factors increase the likelihood of diaspora mobilization: a community’s experience with democratic governance and conflict in its country of origin. We posit that these conditions make it more likely that political entrepreneurs emerge to serve as catalysts for top-down mobilization. To test our hypotheses, we collect and analyze novel data on diasporic interest groups as well as the characteristics of their respective countries of origin. In turn, we conduct the first in-depth case studies of the historical and contemporary Indian-American lobbies, using original archival and interview evidence.

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