Christian Kreuder-Sonnen
- Published in print:
- 2019
- Published Online:
- January 2020
- ISBN:
- 9780198832935
- eISBN:
- 9780191871337
- Item type:
- book
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/oso/9780198832935.001.0001
- Subject:
- Political Science, International Relations and Politics
This book explores emergency politics of international organizations (IOs). It studies cases in which, based on justifications of exceptional necessity, IOs expand their authority, increase executive ...
More
This book explores emergency politics of international organizations (IOs). It studies cases in which, based on justifications of exceptional necessity, IOs expand their authority, increase executive discretion, and interfere with the rights of their rule-addressees. This “IO exceptionalism” is observable in the crisis responses of a diverse set of institutions including the United Nations Security Council, the European Union, and the World Health Organization. Through six in-depth case studies, the book analyzes the institutional dynamics unfolding in the wake of the assumption of emergency powers by IOs. Sometimes, the exceptional competencies become normalized in the IOs’ authority structures (the “ratchet effect”). In other cases, IO emergency powers provoke a backlash that eventually reverses or contains the expansions of authority (the “rollback effect”). To explain these variable outcomes, the book draws on sociological institutionalism to develop a proportionality theory of IO emergency powers. It contends that ratchets and rollbacks are a function of actors’ ability to justify or contest emergency powers as (dis)proportionate. The claim that the distribution of rhetorical power is decisive for the institutional outcome is tested against alternative rational institutionalist explanations that focus on institutional design and the distribution of institutional power among states. The proportionality theory holds across the cases studied in this book and clearly outcompetes the alternative accounts. Against the background of the empirical analysis, the book moreover provides a critical normative reflection on the (anti) constitutional effects of IO exceptionalism and highlights a potential connection between authoritarian traits in global governance and the system’s current legitimacy crisis.Less
This book explores emergency politics of international organizations (IOs). It studies cases in which, based on justifications of exceptional necessity, IOs expand their authority, increase executive discretion, and interfere with the rights of their rule-addressees. This “IO exceptionalism” is observable in the crisis responses of a diverse set of institutions including the United Nations Security Council, the European Union, and the World Health Organization. Through six in-depth case studies, the book analyzes the institutional dynamics unfolding in the wake of the assumption of emergency powers by IOs. Sometimes, the exceptional competencies become normalized in the IOs’ authority structures (the “ratchet effect”). In other cases, IO emergency powers provoke a backlash that eventually reverses or contains the expansions of authority (the “rollback effect”). To explain these variable outcomes, the book draws on sociological institutionalism to develop a proportionality theory of IO emergency powers. It contends that ratchets and rollbacks are a function of actors’ ability to justify or contest emergency powers as (dis)proportionate. The claim that the distribution of rhetorical power is decisive for the institutional outcome is tested against alternative rational institutionalist explanations that focus on institutional design and the distribution of institutional power among states. The proportionality theory holds across the cases studied in this book and clearly outcompetes the alternative accounts. Against the background of the empirical analysis, the book moreover provides a critical normative reflection on the (anti) constitutional effects of IO exceptionalism and highlights a potential connection between authoritarian traits in global governance and the system’s current legitimacy crisis.
Christian Kreuder-Sonnen
- Published in print:
- 2019
- Published Online:
- January 2020
- ISBN:
- 9780198832935
- eISBN:
- 9780191871337
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/oso/9780198832935.003.0007
- Subject:
- Political Science, International Relations and Politics
The concluding chapter revisits the proportionality theory and assesses its explanatory power relative to the theoretical competitors by way of an aggregated cross-case comparison. It finds that the ...
More
The concluding chapter revisits the proportionality theory and assesses its explanatory power relative to the theoretical competitors by way of an aggregated cross-case comparison. It finds that the theory fares exceptionally well in both explaining single case outcomes and accounting for variance across cases. The model holds across a variety of institutional designs, levels of authority, issue areas, and crisis types. Second, this chapter turns to the question of how to normatively evaluate IO exceptionalism. It proposes to distinguish three different questions about the normative legitimacy of (a) the adoption and exercise of emergency powers by IOs, (b) the process of constitutional change after IO exceptionalism, and (c) the post-exceptionalist political order of IOs. While the preliminary assessments of the cases on these dimensions are not uniform, overall they warrant skepticism regarding the normative legitimacy of mostly unregulated emergency politics at the global level.Less
The concluding chapter revisits the proportionality theory and assesses its explanatory power relative to the theoretical competitors by way of an aggregated cross-case comparison. It finds that the theory fares exceptionally well in both explaining single case outcomes and accounting for variance across cases. The model holds across a variety of institutional designs, levels of authority, issue areas, and crisis types. Second, this chapter turns to the question of how to normatively evaluate IO exceptionalism. It proposes to distinguish three different questions about the normative legitimacy of (a) the adoption and exercise of emergency powers by IOs, (b) the process of constitutional change after IO exceptionalism, and (c) the post-exceptionalist political order of IOs. While the preliminary assessments of the cases on these dimensions are not uniform, overall they warrant skepticism regarding the normative legitimacy of mostly unregulated emergency politics at the global level.
