Ordering Complexity: The Historical Evolution of Intl. Civil Aviation Governance

• In Event: The Evolution of Global Governance Complexes

Abstract

Literature on institutional complexes has described the coexistence of multiple institutions with overlapping mandates and functions as a ‘pathology’ that threatens to undermine governance effectiveness through duplication, inconsistency and conflict. Such assessments disregard the mechanisms available to states and other political actors for reducing conflictual overlap and improving inter-institutional coordination, and underrate the ‘self-organizing’ traits of complex adaptive systems which mean they tend to evolve toward order rather than disorder. Drawing on historical data I examine how states and international organizations have mitigated conflict within institutional complexes by merging or partitioning existing institutions, or by re-shaping institutional mandates. I further examine how elements of ‘spontaneous’ order has emerged through ‘competitive adaptation’ by institutional agents in the absence of state-led re-structuring. My empirical analysis supports two theoretical claims. First, states frequently use institutional re-structuring to reduce or manage institutional complexity. Second, a combination of state-directed re-structuring and non-directed competitive adaptation means that complex governance systems tend, over time, to (re)produce elements of order at both local and system-wide level.

Author

• Mette Eilstrup-Sangiovanni, Cambridge University