Regime Consequences: Methodological Challenges and Research Strategies

391 Pages·2004·1.856 MB·English

by  Arild Underdal, Oran R. Young (auth.)

REGIME CONSEQUENCES
Regime Consequences
Methodological Challenges and Research
Strategies
by
Arild Underdal
University of Oslo,
Oslo, Norway
and
Oran R. Young
University of California,
Santa Barbara, California, U.S.A.
Arild Underdal is the Rector and a Professor of Political Science at the University of
Oslo. Oran Young is a Professor of Environmental Science and Management at the
Donald Bren School of Environmental Science and Management at the University of
California at Santa Barbara. Most of the work on this project was completed while the
editors were in residence as research fellows at the Centre for Advanced Study in Oslo,
Norway.
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A C.I.P. Catalogue record for this book is available from the Library of Congress.
ISBN 978-90-481-6586-5 ISBN 978-1-4020-2208-1 (eBook)
DOI 10.1007/978-1-4020-2208-1
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©2004 Springer­Science+Business(cid:3)Media(cid:3)Dordrecht
Originally published by Kluwer Academic Publishers in 2004
Softcover reprint of the hardcover 1st edition 2004
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Contents
Contributing Authors vii
Preface 1
Chapter 1 The Consequences of International Regimes 3
ORANYOUNG
Part I: Simple Effectiveness 25
Chapter 2 Methodological Challenges in the Study of
Regime Effectiveness 27
ARILDUNDERDAL
Chapter 3 Case Studies of the Effectiveness of International
Environmental Regimes 49
STEINARANDRESENANDJØRGENWETTESTAD
Chapter 4 Causal Mechanisms and the Study of International
Environmental Regimes 71
JONHOVI
Chapter 5 Boolean Analysis, Mechanisms, and the Study of Regime
Effectiveness 87
OLAVSCHRAMSTOKKE
vi REGIME CONSEQUENCES:
Chapter 6 A Quantitative Approach to Evaluating International
Environmental Regimes 121
RONALDB.MITCHELL
Chapter 7 Formal Theory and Regime Effectiveness:
Rational Players, Irrational Regimes 151
HUGHWARD,GRANKGRUNDIG AND ETHANZORICK
Chapter 8 Does Regime Robustness Require a Fair Distribution of
The Gains from Cooperation? 183
ANDREASHASENCLEVER,PETERMAYER,
AND VOLKERRITTBERGER
Part II: Broader Consequences 217
Chapter 9 Methodological Issues in the Study of Broader
Consequences 219
THOMASGEHRING
Chapter 10 Exploring Regime Interaction 247
THOMASGEHRINGANDSEBASTIANOBERTHÜR
Chapter 11 International Regimes And Democracy 281
HELMUTBREITMEIER
Chapter 12 Into the Methodological Void 307
GREGORWALTER,MICHAELZÜRN
Chapter 13 Regimes and Social Transformation 335
BARRYB.HUGHES
Part III: Conclusion 359
Chapter 14 Research Strategies for the Future 361
ARILDUNDERDALANDORANR.YOUNG
Index 381
REGIME CONSEQUENCES: vii
Contributing Authors
Steinar Andresen, Helmut Breitmeier, Thomas Gehring, Grank
Grundig, Andreas Hasenclever, Jon Hovi, Barry B. Hughes, Peter
Mayer, Ronald B. Mitchell, Sebastian Oberthür, Volker Rittberger,
Olav Schram Stokke, Arild Underdal, Gregor Walter, Hugh Ward,
Jørgen Wettestad, Oran Young, Ethan Zorick, Michael Zürn
Preface
This volume has a long and distinguished pedigree. It is the product of
an effort to devise clear and unambiguous methods for demonstrating
that international regimes make a difference stretching back at least to
the early 1990s. What has transpired in the meantime is the
development of a suite of useful techniques of analysis rather than the
creation of a single, correct methodology for use in this field of study.
Our assumption is that we can be relatively confident regarding
assessments of the consequences of individual regimes when those
employing a variety of methods converge on the same conclusions.
When different methods yield divergent conclusions, on the other
hand, we can take this as a signal that more work is needed to arrive at
convincing judgments regarding the consequences of the regimes in
question.
Along the way, we came to understand that there is an important
distinction between what we describe in this book as simple
effectiveness and broader consequences. Most analyses of the
effectiveness of international regimes focus on individual cases and
seek to assess the performance of regimes on a case-by-case basis.
This is entirely understandable. Yet it is now clear that individual
regimes not only interact with one another but also operate in and
affect broader settings. The study of these broader consequences is
less mature than research on the effectiveness of individual regimes.
But it points to a line of analysis that is destined to become
increasingly prominent during the foreseeable future. We therefore
1
2 REGIMECONSEQUENCES:
devote a large portion of this book to a consideration of ways to think
about the emerging issue of broader consequences.
This volume concentrates on matters of methodology, modeling, and
measurement. It is not likely to become a best seller. Yet the issues it
addresses are critical to the fate of regime analysis. If we can make
substantial headway in efforts to evaluate regime consequences, the
future of this field of study will be bright. If not, regime analysis will
go the way of many other fashions in the study of international
relations. As a result, we expect this book to be read and referred to
frequently both by established scholars in the field and by graduate
students seeking guidance in the development of topics for their
theses.
The bulk of the substantive work on this volume was done during the
academic year 1999-2000, when we were both fellows of the Centre
for Advanced Study located at the Norwegian Academy of Science
and Letters in Oslo, Norway. Early in the year, we organized a
workshop at the Centre where authors presented preliminary drafts of
the papers included in the volume. We then had the pleasure of
holding a follow-up workshop during the spring of 2000 to discuss
revised drafts and to receive input from a number of other colleagues.
Since then, all the authors have engaged in several rounds of revisions
of the papers that form the chapters of this volume.
We owe a large debt of gratitude to the Centre for Advanced Study for
providing the support needed to engage in work of this kind and for
trusting us to come up with a significant product in the absence of any
active supervision. It is a pleasure to acknowledge this support.
Arild Underdal
Oran R. Young
Chapter 1
THE CONSEQUENCES OF INTERNATIONAL
REGIMES
A Framework for Analysis
ORAN YOUNG
Donald Bren School of Environmental Science and Management, University of California
(Santa Barbara)
The debate about whether international regimes matter is essentially
over. Despite periodic rearguard actions (Mearsheimer 1994/1995) and
occasional outbreaks of self-doubt, a consensus has emerged that regimes
and more generally social institutions do make a difference—sometimes a
big difference—in international society (Levy, Young, and Zürn 1995;
Young 1999, Miles et al. 2002). Lest anyone be tempted to see this as the
end of a line of enquiry, however, we hasten to point out that the emergence
of this consensus opens up a large and important research agenda for those
interested in the roles that institutions play in international society. While
regimes matter, the ways in which they matter, the extent to which they
matter, and the conditions under which they matter are variables whose
values range widely over the universe of cases. Moreover, the effort to
explain variance in these terms is fraught with a number of analytic and
methodological problems ensuring that efforts to pin down the consequences
of regimes under real-world conditions will remain high on the list of
challenges confronting those engaged in research on international regimes
during the foreseeable future.
The purpose of this introductory chapter is to set the stage for a concerted
effort to advance our knowledge of the consequences of international
regimes and, in the process, to provide context for the substantive papers
included in this volume. The discussion to follow directs attention to two
distinct dimensions of this subject. One dimension is substantive; it is based
on a key distinction among types or categories of consequences flowing
from the operation of regimes. A major objective of this discussion is to
broaden the range of effects or impacts of regimes that analysts consider in
3
A.UnderdalandO.R.Young(eds.),RegimeConsequences, 3–23.
©2004KluwerAcademicPublishers.
4 O.YOUNG
endeavoring to assess the consequences that these arrangements produce.
The second dimension is analytic and methodological; it highlights a series
of challenges facing those seeking to produce convincing conclusions about
the consequences of international regimes. An important goal in this
connection is to enlarge the current debate in this field by expanding the tool
kit available to those seeking to enhance our understanding of the
consequences of regimes. The boundaries among types of consequences and
especially among types of research challenges are not hard and fast; they
should be treated simply as points of departure for this exercise. Even so, it
may help to juxtapose the two dimensions, a procedure that yields a 2x3
table (see Table 1.1) in which the rows feature different types of
consequences and the columns emphasize major categories of analytic and
methodological challenges.
Efforts to contribute to our understanding of the roles regimes play in
international society may proceed by focusing either on the rows or the
columns of this matrix; they may also concentrate more intensively on
individual cells in the matrix. The conference that gave rise to the papers in
this volume proceeded by establishing row teams on the grounds that what
drives the study of international regimes is, first and foremost, an interest in
understanding the ways in which these arrangements affect the course of
world affairs. Each row team then coordinated the efforts of its members to
examine the analytic and methodological issues arising in the three columns.
This procedure worked well at the conference, and we have carried it over as
an organizing principle for the papers included in this volume.
Table 1.1. Consequences and Challenges.

ANALYTIC/METHODOLOGICAL CHALLENGES
TYPES OF Concepts/ Causal Data
CONSEQUENCES Hypotheses Connections Issues
Simple
Effectiveness
Broader
Consequences