Regime Type and International Cooperation

Session Submission Type: Full Paper Panel

Session Description

One of the most consistent findings in the study of world politics pertains to the relationship between regime type and international cooperation. Almost without exception, previous research finds that democratic states are more cooperatively oriented, while autocratic states fear the constraints of collaboration (e.g., Mansfield and Pevehouse 2006; Bättig and Bernauer 2009; Milner and Mukherjee 2009; Simmons and Danner 2010; Poast and Urpelainen 2013; Tallberg et al. 2013). However, political developments over the past decade call for a reexamination of this relationship. While most previous studies were produced at a time of democratic expansion, the past decade has instead seen a decline in democracy around the world, raising novel questions about autocratization and international cooperation. In addition, recent events in world politics suggest a more complicated relationship, as several democracies have withered in their support for international cooperation, while autocracies increasingly are banding together in new organizations.

This panel will revisit the classic relationship between regime type and international cooperation, asking novel questions, developing novel theories, and presenting novel empirics. Specifically, it engages with three broader questions about this relationship. First, what are the consequences of democratic erosion for international cooperation? The paper by Jon Pevehouse explores the hypothesis that backsliding makes democracies less reliable cooperative partners. Based on a large-N cross-country time-series analysis, he finds that declines in cooperation result from increasingly hostile rhetoric between democracies, rather than less reliable policy behavior. In another paper on the same topic, Maria Debre and Thomas Sommerer explore how the behavior of democratic backsliders within international organizations (IOs) differs from that of other states and how this behavior subsequently affects the prospects for institutional change. They argue that democratic backsliders have particular institutional preferences that matter for cooperation within IOs. Second, what are the effects of regime type on how states organize cooperation within IOs? The paper by Jonas Tallberg and Carl Vikberg explores how variation in the regime composition of IO memberships is related to institutional design, exploiting new data on delegation, pooling, and access within IOs. They find the regime composition of IO memberships to matter for institutional design in heterogeneous but predictable ways. The third question reverses the causal arrow in the relationship between regime type and international cooperation: could it be that international cooperation in fact contributes to autocratization and democratic backsliding? The paper by Emilie Haftner-Burton and Christina Schneider claims this to be the case. They develop and test the argument that the Liberal International Order has turned against itself by providing non-democratic regimes with opportunities to consolidate authoritarianism.

Sub Unit

• Division 17: International Collaboration

Individual Presentations

• Democratic Backsliding and International Cooperation - Jon C. W. Pevehouse, University of Wisconsin, Madison

• Autocratization of IO Membership: Driver of Institutional Change? - Thomas Sommerer, University of Potsdam; Maria Josepha Debre, Potsdam University

• Democracy, Autocracy, and the Design of International Organizations - Jonas Tallberg, Stockholm University; Carl Vikberg, Stockholm University

• The International Liberal Foundations of Autocratization - Emilie Marie Hafner-Burton, University of California, San Diego; Christina J. Schneider, University of California, San Diego

• The Authoritarian Trojan Horse Threatening Liberal International Organizations - Anna M. Meyerrose, Arizona State University; Irfan Nooruddin, Georgetown University

Chair

• Edward D. Mansfield University of Pennsylvania

Discussants

• Stephan Haggard University of California, San Diego

• Felicity Vabulas Pepperdine University