IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/zbw/espost/265248.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

Making global public policy work: A survey of international organization effectiveness

Author

Listed:
  • Coen, David
  • Kreienkamp, Julia
  • Tokhi, Alexandros
  • Pegram, Tom

Abstract

Do international organizations (IOs) actually help address global problems? This question is of major concern for global governance scholars and policy makers, yet few existing studies review issues of effectiveness across a range of different issue areas. This paper generates comparative insights on IO performance across seven policy domains, namely climate change, development, finance, investment, migration, security, and trade. Based on a detailed expert survey, we consider how key IOs in these issue areas perform across three different measures of effectiveness: constitutive effectiveness, compliance, and goal achievement. We also investigate causal claims on effectiveness, exploring how IO institutional design – and in particular measures of authority – influence their ability to shape policy outcomes. Taking stock of the distribution of authority across issue areas and policy functions, we ask whether highly formalized, deeply constraining institutional arrangements have a consistently stronger impact on state behaviour or whether less formalized institutions with fewer discretionary powers can also contribute to the effective implementation of internationally coordinated policies. Finally, we identify key cross-cutting challenges for global governance effectiveness, including political conflict and politicization, concerns related to legitimacy and representation, and growing problem complexity.

Suggested Citation

  • Coen, David & Kreienkamp, Julia & Tokhi, Alexandros & Pegram, Tom, 2022. "Making global public policy work: A survey of international organization effectiveness," EconStor Open Access Articles and Book Chapters, ZBW - Leibniz Information Centre for Economics, vol. 13(5), pages 656-668.
    • Handle: RePEc:zbw:espost:265248
    DOI: 10.1111/1758-5899.13125
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: https://www.econstor.eu/bitstream/10419/265248/3/Full-text-article-Coen-et-al-Making-global-public.pdf
    Download Restriction: no
    File URL: https://libkey.io/10.1111/1758-5899.13125?utm_source=ideas
    LibKey link: if access is restricted and if your library uses this service, LibKey will redirect you to where you can use your library subscription to access this item
    ---><---

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. repec:bla:glopol:v:8:y:2017:i:s5:p:51-61 is not listed on IDEAS
    2. Tamar Gutner & Alexander Thompson, 2010. "The politics of IO performance: A framework," The Review of International Organizations, Springer, vol. 5(3), pages 227-248, September.
    3. Jon Hovi & Detlef F. Sprinz, 2006. "The Limits of the Law of the Least Ambitious Program," Global Environmental Politics, MIT Press, vol. 6(3), pages 28-42, August.
    4. David G. Victor, 2006. "Toward Effective International Cooperation on Climate Change: Numbers, Interests and Institutions," Global Environmental Politics, MIT Press, vol. 6(3), pages 90-103, August.
    5. Steven Bernstein & Matthew Hoffmann, 2018. "The politics of decarbonization and the catalytic impact of subnational climate experiments," Policy Sciences, Springer;Society of Policy Sciences, vol. 51(2), pages 189-211, June.
    6. Ronald B. Mitchell, 2006. "Problem Structure, Institutional Design, and the Relative Effectiveness of International Environmental Agreements," Global Environmental Politics, MIT Press, vol. 6(3), pages 72-89, August.
    7. Hafner-Burton, Emilie M. & Mansfield, Edward D. & Pevehouse, Jon C.W., 2015. "Human Rights Institutions, Sovereignty Costs and Democratization," British Journal of Political Science, Cambridge University Press, vol. 45(1), pages 1-27, January.
    8. Kenneth W. Abbott & Thomas Hale, 2014. "Orchestrating Global Solutions Networks: A Guide for Organizational Entrepreneurs," Innovations: Technology, Governance, Globalization, MIT Press, vol. 9(1-2), pages 195-212, Winter-Sp.
    9. Lall, Ranjit, 2017. "Beyond Institutional Design: Explaining the Performance of International Organizations," International Organization, Cambridge University Press, vol. 71(2), pages 245-280, April.
    10. Haas, Peter M., 1989. "Do regimes matter? Epistemic communities and Mediterranean pollution control," International Organization, Cambridge University Press, vol. 43(3), pages 377-403, July.
    11. Dai, Xinyuan, 2005. "Why Comply? The Domestic Constituency Mechanism," International Organization, Cambridge University Press, vol. 59(2), pages 363-398, April.
    12. Klaus H. Goetz & Ronny Patz & Eugénia Heldt & Henning Schmidtke, 2017. "Measuring the Empowerment of International Organizations: The Evolution of Financial and Staff Capabilities," Global Policy, London School of Economics and Political Science, vol. 8, pages 51-61, August.
    13. Kim Moloney & Rayna Stoycheva, 2018. "Partial Two‐Way Mirror: International Organization Budget Transparency," Global Policy, London School of Economics and Political Science, vol. 9(1), pages 26-40, February.
    14. Robert O. Keohane, 1982. "International agencies and the art of the possible: The case of the IEA," Journal of Policy Analysis and Management, John Wiley & Sons, Ltd., vol. 1(4), pages 469-481.
    15. repec:bla:glopol:v:8:y:2017:i:s5:p:5-14 is not listed on IDEAS
    16. Tana Johnson, 2011. "Guilt by association: The link between states’ influence and the legitimacy of intergovernmental organizations," The Review of International Organizations, Springer, vol. 6(1), pages 57-84, March.
    17. Downs, George W. & Rocke, David M. & Barsoom, Peter N., 1996. "Is the good news about compliance good news about cooperation?," International Organization, Cambridge University Press, vol. 50(3), pages 379-406, July.
    18. Dellmuth, Lisa & Scholte, Jan Aart & Tallberg, Jonas & Verhaegen, Soetkin, 2022. "The Elite–Citizen Gap in International Organization Legitimacy," American Political Science Review, Cambridge University Press, vol. 116(1), pages 283-300, February.
    19. Jonas Tallberg & Michael Zürn, 2019. "The legitimacy and legitimation of international organizations: introduction and framework," The Review of International Organizations, Springer, vol. 14(4), pages 581-606, December.
    20. Koremenos, Barbara & Lipson, Charles & Snidal, Duncan, 2001. "The Rational Design of International Institutions," International Organization, Cambridge University Press, vol. 55(4), pages 761-799, October.
    21. Thomas Hale & Charles Roger, 2014. "Orchestration and transnational climate governance," The Review of International Organizations, Springer, vol. 9(1), pages 59-82, March.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Citations

    Citations are extracted by the CitEc Project, subscribe to its RSS feed for this item.
    as


    Cited by:

    1. Jarle Trondal & Thomas Tieku & Stefan Gänzle, 2023. "The organisational dimension of executive authority in the Global South: Insights from the AU and ECOWAS commissions," Global Policy, London School of Economics and Political Science, vol. 14(1), pages 31-47, February.

    Most related items

    These are the items that most often cite the same works as this one and are cited by the same works as this one.
    1. David Coen & Julia Kreienkamp & Alexandros Tokhi & Tom Pegram, 2022. "Making global public policy work: A survey of international organization effectiveness," Global Policy, London School of Economics and Political Science, vol. 13(5), pages 656-668, November.
    2. Oliver Westerwinter, 2021. "Transnational public-private governance initiatives in world politics: Introducing a new dataset," The Review of International Organizations, Springer, vol. 16(1), pages 137-174, January.
    3. Andrew Lugg, 2024. "Re-contracting intergovernmental organizations: Membership change and the creation of linked intergovernmental organizations," The Review of International Organizations, Springer, vol. 19(3), pages 545-577, September.
    4. Matias E. Margulis, 2021. "Intervention by international organizations in regime complexes," The Review of International Organizations, Springer, vol. 16(4), pages 871-902, October.
    5. Julia Gray, 2024. "The life cycle of international cooperation: Introduction to the special issue," The Review of International Organizations, Springer, vol. 19(4), pages 641-664, October.
    6. Bernhard Reinsberg & Oliver Westerwinter, 2023. "Institutional Overlap in Global Governance and the Design of Intergovernmental Organizations," The Review of International Organizations, Springer, vol. 18(4), pages 693-724, October.
    7. Michael Zürn & Alexandros Tokhi & Martin Binder, 2021. "The International Authority Database," Global Policy, London School of Economics and Political Science, vol. 12(4), pages 430-442, September.
    8. Maria J. Debre & Hylke Dijkstra, 2023. "Are international organisations in decline? An absolute and relative perspective on institutional change," Global Policy, London School of Economics and Political Science, vol. 14(1), pages 16-30, February.
    9. Oliver Westerwinter & Kenneth W. Abbott & Thomas Biersteker, 2021. "Informal governance in world politics," The Review of International Organizations, Springer, vol. 16(1), pages 1-27, January.
    10. Xinyuan Dai, 2006. "The Conditional Nature of Democratic Compliance," Journal of Conflict Resolution, Peace Science Society (International), vol. 50(5), pages 690-713, October.
    11. Tobias Lenz & Besir Ceka & Liesbet Hooghe & Gary Marks & Alexandr Burilkov, 2023. "Discovering cooperation: Endogenous change in international organizations," The Review of International Organizations, Springer, vol. 18(4), pages 631-666, October.
    12. Johannes Urpelainen, 2011. "Early birds: Special interests and the strategic logic of international cooperation," The Review of International Organizations, Springer, vol. 6(2), pages 113-140, July.
    13. Helen V. Milner, 2008. "Commentary on the Special Issue," Journal of Conflict Resolution, Peace Science Society (International), vol. 52(2), pages 334-337, April.
    14. Yoram Z. Haftel & Tobias Lenz, 2022. "Measuring institutional overlap in global governance," The Review of International Organizations, Springer, vol. 17(2), pages 323-347, April.
    15. Pradip Kumar Sarker & Lukas Giessen & Max Göhrs & Sohui Jeon & Minette Nago & Fredy David Polo-Villanueva & Sarah Lilian Burns, 2024. "The forest policy outputs of regional regimes: a qualitative comparative analysis on the effects of formalization, hegemony and issue-focus around the globe," International Environmental Agreements: Politics, Law and Economics, Springer, vol. 24(2), pages 449-467, September.
    16. Yixian Sun, 2017. "Transnational Public-Private Partnerships as Learning Facilitators: Global Governance of Mercury," Global Environmental Politics, MIT Press, vol. 17(2), pages 21-44, May.
    17. Tobias Böhmelt & Gabriele Spilker, 2016. "The interaction of international institutions from a social network perspective," International Environmental Agreements: Politics, Law and Economics, Springer, vol. 16(1), pages 67-89, February.
    18. Christopher Marcoux & Johannes Urpelainen, 2013. "Non-compliance by design: Moribund hard law in international institutions," The Review of International Organizations, Springer, vol. 8(2), pages 163-191, June.
    19. Tobias Böhmelt, 2022. "Environmental-agreement design and political ideology in democracies," International Environmental Agreements: Politics, Law and Economics, Springer, vol. 22(3), pages 507-525, September.
    20. Inken Borzyskowski & Felicity Vabulas, 2019. "Hello, goodbye: When do states withdraw from international organizations?," The Review of International Organizations, Springer, vol. 14(2), pages 335-366, June.

    More about this item

    Statistics

    Access and download statistics

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:zbw:espost:265248. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    If CitEc recognized a bibliographic reference but did not link an item in RePEc to it, you can help with this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: ZBW - Leibniz Information Centre for Economics (email available below). General contact details of provider: https://edirc.repec.org/data/zbwkide.html .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.