Covert Participation: How Populists Engage with International Organizations

• In Event: International Bureaucrats: Representation, Agency and Power in Global Governance

Abstract

A large literature posits that populists eschew international institutions, decrying the corrupt and distant ``global elite." However, we contend that this behavior is largely performative, and that populists engage frequently with IOs behind the scenes. Interacting with IOs in a less visible manner allows populists to both claim to their constituencies that they are part of the ``pure people" while also using IOs to advance their economic and foreign policy agendas. To test our theory, we use new data on non-public participation at the IMF and find that populists participate more than other types of leaders in this context. Our results have important implications for the broader relationship between populism and global governance.

Authors

• Allison Carnegie, Columbia University

• Richard Clark, Princeton University

• Ayse Kaya, Swarthmore College