Papers by Thomas Sommerer
Global Legitimacy Crises
This book addresses the consequences of legitimacy in global governance, in particular asking: wh... more This book addresses the consequences of legitimacy in global governance, in particular asking: when and how do legitimacy crises affect international organizations (IOs) and their capacity to rule. The book starts with a new conceptualization of legitimacy crisis that looks at public challenges from a variety of actors. Based on this conceptualization, it applies a mixed-methods approach to identify and examine legitimacy crises, starting with a quantitative analysis of mass media data on challenges of a sample of 32 IOs. It shows that some, but not all organizations have experienced legitimacy crises, spread over several decades from 1985 to 2020. Following this, the book presents a qualitative study to further examine legitimacy crises of two selected case studies: the WTO and the UNFCCC. Whereas earlier research assumed that legitimacy crises have negative consequences, the book introduces a theoretical framework that privileges the activation inherent in a legitimacy crisis. It ...
The CGG Preprint Series contains manuscripts by members of the Centre for Globalisation and Gover... more The CGG Preprint Series contains manuscripts by members of the Centre for Globalisation and Governance that will subsequently appear in professional journals and books. The documents are intended for limited dissemination.
The Power of Global Performance Indicators, 2020
Austrian Journal of Political Science, 2012
Die klassische Theorie des Regulierungswettbewerbs im Umweltschutz sagte im Zuge der Globalisieru... more Die klassische Theorie des Regulierungswettbewerbs im Umweltschutz sagte im Zuge der Globalisierung Regulierungswettlaufe nach unten voraus. Die empirische Evidenz scheint widerspruchlich, was auch an den verwendeten Masen fur das Regulierungsniveau liegt. Insbesondere die auf Umweltqualitatsdaten beruhende Forschung deutet eher auf eine Aufwartsbewegung hin. Zur Erklarung fur eine Aufwartsdynamik gibt es in der Literatur einige kausale Vermutungen, jedoch bisher keinen breit abgestutzten empirischen Nachweis. In diesem Artikel erganzen wir zunachst die Theorie um einen weiteren Faktor, die internationale Harmonisierung, von der wir vermuten, dass sie eine Regulierungsbewegung nach oben verursacht. Anschliesend testen wir die Theorie mit umweltpolitischen Daten aus 24 Landern von 1970 bis 2005, wobei wir erstmals die Regulierungsniveaus direkt messen. Wir finden eine eindeutige Aufwartsbewegung des Regulierungsniveaus, keinen Effekt okonomischen Wettbewerbs und klare Belege fur den ...
SSRN Electronic Journal, 2016
This paper examines the effect of local political decision-making institutions (i.e., direct demo... more This paper examines the effect of local political decision-making institutions (i.e., direct democracy vs. representative democracy) on citizens' preferences toward public spending. Exogenous variation in institutions comes from a regression discontinuity design, which exploits a discrete change in the probability that a municipality has representative democracy based on a legally stipulated population threshold in the Swiss canton (state) of Vaud. Fiscal policy preferences by municipality are measured by vote shares on Swiss national referendums and initiatives that, if approved, would have increased public spending. Relative to direct democracy, representative democracy reduces vote shares in favor of spending by around 5 percentage points. The effect is not due to sorting on other observables or to feedback from changes in local policies. These findings demonstrate the importance of preferences as a channel through which political decision-making institutions can affect public policies.
Cooperation and Conflict, 2019
In the face of escalating conflicts or atrocities, international organizations (IOs), alongside n... more In the face of escalating conflicts or atrocities, international organizations (IOs), alongside non-governmental organizations (NGOs), often vocalize public condemnation. Researchers have examined NGO shaming, but no extant literature has comparatively explored if, how and why IOs shame. This article fills this gap. We conceptualize IO shaming as condemnatory speech acts and distinguish between the agent, targets and actions of shaming. We theorize how compliance and socialization are motives that lead IOs to shame. Empirically, we use new data on more than 3000 instances of IO shaming, covering 27 organizations between 1980 and 2015 to examine empirical patterns across the three dimensions of agents, targets and actions. We find that the majority of IOs do employ shaming but to varying degrees. Global, general-purpose IOs shame the most and regional, task-specific IOs the least. IOs mainly shame states, but there is a rise in the targeting of non-state and unnamed actors. While man...
Zentralität und Dezentralität von Regulierung in Europa, 2007
International Studies Perspectives, 2016
This article introduces a new data set on the access of transnational actors (TNAs) to internatio... more This article introduces a new data set on the access of transnational actors (TNAs) to international organizations (IOs). While IOs were long the exclusive preserve of member governments, recent decades have witnessed a shift toward more inclusive forms of governance, involving participation by non-governmental organizations, philanthropic foundations, multinational corporations, and other forms of TNAs. Yet existing research has lacked the data necessary to map this phenomenon and its variation over dimensions such as time, issue areas, and world regions. The TRANSACCESS data set is designed for this purpose and contains information on the level of openness in 298 bodies of 50 IOs from 1950 to 2010. On the basis of this data set, we also introduce a first quantitative measure of institutional openness in the shape of a composite index, available at both the IO and body levels. This index can be used to compare TNA access across and within IOs but also as a variable in large-N studies on global and regional governance, where IO openness is potentially relevant.
Statsvetenskaplig Tidskrift, 2013
Den statsvetenskapliga forskningen i Sverige är starkt beroende av extern finansiering. Sedan län... more Den statsvetenskapliga forskningen i Sverige är starkt beroende av extern finansiering. Sedan länge har tre institutioner haft en särställning när det gäller finansiering av forskning inom statsvetenskapens traditionella kärnområden, nämligen Vetenskapsrådet, Riksbankens jubileumsfond och FAS. Konkurrensen om forskningsanslag är i dag mycket hård och de projekt som ges anslag får därmed i någon mening anses representera forskningsfronten inom svensk statsvetenskap. Det är av allmänt intresse att delge hela "statsvetarsverige" information om innehållet i denna nya forskning. I stort sett alla de forskare som erhållit nya projektbidrag i statsvetenskap för år från Vetenskapsrådet, Riksbankens jubileumsfond och FAS publicerar därför en sammanfattning av sin forskningsansökan i tidskriften. (Av utrymmesskäl har vi begränsat redovisningen till bidragsformerna projekt och program i den ordinarie utlysningen.
Internationale Organisationen, 2015
International organizations (IOs) have undergone a profound institutional transformation over pas... more International organizations (IOs) have undergone a profound institutional transformation over past decades, dramatically expanding the opportunities for transnational actors (TNAs) to participate in global policy-making. At the same time, significant differences remain, as TNA involvement continues to vary in distinct and durable ways. In this article, we argue that a neglected source of patterns in openness is the policy approaches of IOs, understood as organizational styles of problem-solving. Policy approaches matter because the one and the same governance problem may be tackled in multiple ways. Policy approaches thus function as an intervening variable, shaping the effect of underlying governance problems on the demand for particular design solutions. Introducing a distinction between centralized and decentralized policy approaches, we argue that IOs which pursue a centralized approach to problem solving are less likely to involve TNAs, whereas IOs that pursue a decentralized approach are more likely to seek the involvement of TNAs in policy formulation, implementation, and enforcement. Empirically, the article combines descriptive statistics on variation in TNA access across and within issue areas, and two case studies that show the varying impact of policy approaches on TNA access in two specific IOs – the Asian Development Bank and the Commonwealth.
The Review of International Organizations, 2015
Domestic regime type has emerged a powerful explanation of multiple phenomena in world politics. ... more Domestic regime type has emerged a powerful explanation of multiple phenomena in world politics. This article extends this argument to the design of international organizations (IOs), where a profound development in recent decades is growing access for transnational actors (TNAs). While earlier research has shown that democracy in IO memberships helps to explain IO openness, we know little about the mechanisms that drive this effect. This article unpacks the relationship between democratic memberships and IO design by theorizing and assessing the impact of three different constellations of democracies on the openness of IOs. Empirically, we conduct a multivariate analysis of TNA access to 50 IOs 1950 to 2010, combined with a case study of the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe. Our main findings are threefold. First, democracy's effect on openness is primarily a product of the combined weight of democracies within IOs and their resulting capacity to secure support for their polity preferences. Second, in contrast, we only find limited support for a specific influence of new democracies and democratic major powers on IO openness. Third, decision rules that allow for openness reforms to be adopted by a majority of member states facilitate and strengthen the influence of democracies, by reducing the ability of autocracies to block change. The findings have implications for our understanding of institutional design in global governance and democracy's effects in world politics.
Transfer, Diffusion und Konvergenz von Politiken, 2007
... Die politikwissenschaft-Iiche Literatur schlietgt hieran mit theoretisch und methodisch gleic... more ... Die politikwissenschaft-Iiche Literatur schlietgt hieran mit theoretisch und methodisch gleich gelagerten Unter-suchungen der Konvergenz von Staatsausgaben oder Steuers~itzen an (z. B. Bernauer/ Achini 2000; Bouget 2003; Slemrod 2004). ...
Können Staaten voneinander lernen?, 2011
ABSTRACT Wachsende Beliebtheit macht aus Policy-Lernen ein zunehmend vielseitiges, vor allem aber... more ABSTRACT Wachsende Beliebtheit macht aus Policy-Lernen ein zunehmend vielseitiges, vor allem aber unübersichtliches Forschungsgebiet (Bandelow 2003a). Dabei treffen sehr unterschiedliche Konzepte von Lernen aufeinander, die oft nur wenig trennscharf von anderen Faktoren des Wandels abgegrenzt werden oder Lernprozesse mit der Veränderung von Politik gleichsetzen (Levy 1994: 289). Zudem findet man in der aktuellen Literatur ein nur wenig geordnetes Nebeneinander von Theorien und Begriffen wie „social learning“, „emulation“, „contagion“ oder „lesson-drawing“. Angesichts dieser Unübersichtlichkeit soll im folgenden Kapitel ein umfassender Überblick über Lerntheorien in der Politik geboten werden, der die vielen Strömungen der aktuellen Literatur systematisiert, um sie für einen empirischen Test der Wirkungsweise von Lernprozessen nutzbar zu machen. Das Ziel ist dabei nicht die Formulierung einer einheitlichen Lerntheorie, sondern eines Analyserahmens, der es wegen einer innovativen Aufarbeitung des Forschungsstandes erlaubt, unterschiedliche Formen des Lernens in einer makro-quantitativen Analyse vergleichend zu untersuchen. Dabei werden neue Kategorien der Systematisierung von Lerntheorien eingeführt und Erkenntnisse aus unterschiedlichen Bereichen der Politikwissenschaft und angrenzender Disziplinen integriert, die bislang nicht oder nicht hinreichend verknüpft wurden.
Transfer, Diffusion und Konvergenz von Politiken, 2007
Beitrag priisentierten Ergebnisse basiseren auf dem Forschungsprojekt ENVI-POLCON (Environmental ... more Beitrag priisentierten Ergebnisse basiseren auf dem Forschungsprojekt ENVI-POLCON (Environmental Governance in Europe), das vonder Europiiischen Kommission im fiinften Forschungsrahmenprogramm gef6rdert wurde (n~ihere Informationen unter http:// www.uni-k•nstanz.de/FuF/Verwiss/kni••/pr•jekte•envip••c•n•pr•ject-h•mepage.•h•). Die Verfasser danken Heide Padberg fiir die hilfreiche Mitarbeit bei der Erstellung und Uberarbeitung des Manuskriptes.
Können Staaten voneinander lernen?, 2011
Durch die deskriptive Analyse von Wandel in der Umweltpolitik konnte bislang ein dominantes Muste... more Durch die deskriptive Analyse von Wandel in der Umweltpolitik konnte bislang ein dominantes Muster von Konvergenz, Imitation und Aufwartswandel identifiziert werden. Ob diese Anderungen nationaler Regulierungen tatsachlich auf die Effekte der in Kapitel 2 aus der theoretischen Literatur abgeleiteten und in Kapitel 3 operationalisierten Lernvariablen zuruckgehen, soll im Folgenden ausfuhrlich analysiert werden. Wie im vorigen Kapitel werden auch hier zuerst die Neueinfuhrungen von Umweltpolitiken (Abschnitt 5.1) und danach die Anderungen von Umweltstandards (Abschnitt 5.2) untersucht.
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Papers by Thomas Sommerer
major growth of global governance over the past 75 years. Yet is this system of global governance fit for purpose in combating today’s transboundary problems? The SNS Democracy Council 2023 examines this question with a focus on three preconditions for wellfunctioning global governance: power, effectiveness, and legitimacy. This report explores these themes in a comparative perspective, analyzing a broad range of international organizations in different policy areas, with an in-depth look at global climate governance as an illustrative case. The Council concludes that contemporary global governance is unable to deliver at its full potential and outlines strategies for making global governance more fit for purpose in the future.
major growth of global governance over the past 75 years. Yet is this system of global governance fit for purpose in combating today’s transboundary problems? The SNS Democracy Council 2023 examines this question with a focus on three preconditions for wellfunctioning global governance: power, effectiveness, and legitimacy. This report explores these themes in a comparative perspective, analyzing a broad range of international organizations in different policy areas, with an in-depth look at global climate governance as an illustrative case. The Council concludes that contemporary global governance is unable to deliver at its full potential and outlines strategies for making global governance more fit for purpose in the future