All Talk and No Action? Populist Challenges to International Organizations

• In Event: New Frontiers in the Study of International Organizations

Abstract

Populist leaders frequently vow to dismantle the status quo, targeting a significant amount of anger at international organizations. Yet despite the wave of populists elected around the world and the vehemence directed at global governance, the post-WWII liberal international order remains remarkably intact. This paper argues that populist leaders engage in a two-pronged strategy where they rhetorically challenge international organizations for domestic political purposes while simultaneously maintaining longstanding cooperative ties to the institution. To the extent that they challenge the institutional status quo at all, such challenges come in a piecemeal, non-systematic approach. To illustrate this argument, I assemble a new dataset that tracks how countries engage with the United Nations and the World Trade Organization before and after the election of populist leaders. The data suggests that despite their reputations, populist leaders largely maintain the same strategies toward international organizations as their predecessors. These findings have implications for how scholars understand the nature of rule and authority in the international system. While the form and content of institutional rules may be subject to considerable debate, states will have a much harder time dismantling the norm of institutionalized cooperation.

Author

• Julia C. Morse, University of California, Santa Barbara