Emergent Order in International Regime Complexes: New Avenues for Research

• In Event: Emergent Order in International Regime Complexes: Cross-Complex Comparison

Abstract

The concept of international regime complexity offers a useful lens through which to examine the increasing density of international institutions. A growing literature identifies clusters of overlapping institutions in many important policy areas, yet scholars have reached conflicting judgments about how this environment shapes substantive outcomes. Many are concerned that inconsistent rules and opportunities for forum shopping undermine the effectiveness of global governance. Others argue that regime complexes provide distinct advantages over unified institutions. We aim to bring coherence to these findings by developing a framework for understanding variation in regime complexes. In particular, we focus on the distinct patterns of interaction that emerge among the constituent institutions in a regime complex. Early work privileged one particular pattern, fragmentation, characterized by the independent operation of nonhierarchical and undifferentiated institutions. But fragmentation is not the only ordering principle that structures institutional interaction. We identify three dimensions that characterize the arrangement of institutions in a regime complex: authority relations, differentiation, and operational independence. Together, these dimensions reveal a wide range of ordering principles that can emerge endogenously among sets of institutions. We suggest that these emergent orders act as intervening variables that condition the effect of regime complexes on important outcomes, including rates of compliance, agency drift, and policy adjustment.

Authors

• C. Randall Henning, American University-SIS

• Tyler Pratt, Yale University