TY - BOOK

T1 - The Rise of International Parliaments

T2 - Strategic Legitimation in International Organizations

AU - Schimmelfennig, Frank

AU - Winzen, Thomas

AU - Lenz, Tobias

AU - Rocabert, Jofre

AU - Crasnic, Loriana

AU - Gherasimov, Cristina

AU - Lipps, Jana

AU - Mumford, Densua

PY - 2020/12/10

Y1 - 2020/12/10

N2 - International parliamentary institutions (IPIs) are on the rise. Around the world, international organizations have increasingly established or affiliated parliamentary assemblies. At the same time, IPIs have generally remained powerless institutions with at best a consultative role in the decision-making process of international organizations. This book pursues the question why the member states of international organizations create IPIs but do not vest them with relevant institutional powers. It argues that neither the functional benefits of delegation nor the internalization of democratic norms provide convincing answers to this question. Rather, IPIs are an instrument of strategic legitimation. By establishing IPIs that mimic a highly esteemed domestic democratic institution, governments seek to ensure that audiences at home and in the wider international environment recognize their IOs as democratically legitimate. At the same time, they seek to avoid being effectively constrained by IPIs in international governance. In a statistical analysis covering the world’s most relevant international organizations and a series of case studies from diverse world regions, we find two major varieties of international parliamentarization. IOs with general purpose and high authority create and empower IPIs to legitimate their region-building projects domestically. Alternatively, IOs are induced to create parliamentary bodies by international diffusion.

AB - International parliamentary institutions (IPIs) are on the rise. Around the world, international organizations have increasingly established or affiliated parliamentary assemblies. At the same time, IPIs have generally remained powerless institutions with at best a consultative role in the decision-making process of international organizations. This book pursues the question why the member states of international organizations create IPIs but do not vest them with relevant institutional powers. It argues that neither the functional benefits of delegation nor the internalization of democratic norms provide convincing answers to this question. Rather, IPIs are an instrument of strategic legitimation. By establishing IPIs that mimic a highly esteemed domestic democratic institution, governments seek to ensure that audiences at home and in the wider international environment recognize their IOs as democratically legitimate. At the same time, they seek to avoid being effectively constrained by IPIs in international governance. In a statistical analysis covering the world’s most relevant international organizations and a series of case studies from diverse world regions, we find two major varieties of international parliamentarization. IOs with general purpose and high authority create and empower IPIs to legitimate their region-building projects domestically. Alternatively, IOs are induced to create parliamentary bodies by international diffusion.

KW - Politics

KW - delegation

KW - democracy

KW - diffusion

KW - global governance

KW - international organization

KW - international parliamentary institution

KW - legitimacy

KW - legitimation

KW - parliament

KW - regionalism

UR - http://www.scopus.com/inward/record.url?scp=85113129609&partnerID=8YFLogxK

U2 - 10.1093/oso/9780198864974.001.0001

DO - 10.1093/oso/9780198864974.001.0001

M3 - Book

SN - 9780198864974

T3 - Transformations in Governance

BT - The Rise of International Parliaments

PB - Oxford University Press

CY - Oxford

ER -