2. What is considered to be "power," how states define
their interests, what regimes states create and what outcomes occur are
all influenced by what norms and ideas and understandings the people who
make up states have
III. Two key questions posed by regimes
A. Why, how, and under what conditions do states decide to form, and
succeed in forming, regimes? I.e., what factors determine when states create
regimes?
B. Why, how, and under what conditions do the regimes states form lead to
state (and nonstate) behaviors different than we would have observed
otherwise?
C. These will be the two main questions we will address in the course and
you will address one or the other in light of a particular case in your
final paper
IV. Questions (to be answered during class in groups of 4-5
students per treaty): For the treaty you are looking at, answer the following
questions
A. Why did countries want to negotiate a treaty on this topic? What
interests drove them to sign it?
B. Would you expect powerful or weak states to have been the major
countries supporting this treaty?
C. What are the major requirements of the treaty?
D. What evidence would you collect to evaluate if this treaty was
effective at accomplishing its goals?
E. Would you expect it to have been effective and, if so, would you
expect its effectiveness to vary over time or across different countries?
V. How do regimes form? Necessity is not the mother of
invention, so how can they arise?
A. Problems regimes arise to resolve
1. General source of regime: one or more states see status quo as
suboptimal and believe that contingent behavior coordinated with other
states will lead them better off
2. At least three basic types of problems regimes arise to respond
to:
a) Coordination
b) Collaboration:
c) Asymmetric externalities
B. Hegemonic provision: powerful states can help states overcome the
collective action problem, since they receive enough benefits to make it
worthwhile to provide the regime
1. Benevolent variant
2. Malevolent variant
C. Collective action – despite difficulty can work sometime
D. Political and normative entrepreneurs
1. Suggest a regime that no one expects to work at first
2. Gains power over time
E. Organic development from tacit or informal regimes
1. Law of the sea and 6 then 12 mile territorial seas based on length
of canon shots
VI. What do regimes do? Functions of regimes: because
regimes provide means of doing these things better than could accomplish
independently, states willing to invest in them.
A. Generally, attempt to make it more likely that others behave as you
desire and less likely that they don’t.
1. Increase costs of noncompliance
2. Increase benefits of compliance
3. Clarify what is expected.
B. Manage complexity: reduce decisions to be made, e.g., tariff levels,
environmental legislation
C. Increase reciprocity: specific (arms control, tariff levels) and
diffuse (human rights)
1. Increase iteration: single behavior seen as part of larger game,
e.g., political dissidents
2. Formalize linkages: financial mechanisms in ozone treaty
3. Reciprocity through operation of norms
D. Reduce transaction costs: easier to negotiate single multilateral
trade or environment treaty, rather than multitude of bilateral ones. One
long agreement within single forum (e.g., oil pollution regulation) rather
than string of separate agreements.. GATT/WTO is perfect example
E. Changes legitimacy of actions: need to justify certain actions in
different ways
F. Improve information: joint information has more credibility, can’t
collect information individually. Reduces misperception and miscommunication
G. Establish normative expectations and increase costs of certain
rhetorical strategies relative to others
VII. Why do regimes succeed? Sources of regime success
A. How do we define success? Different types of regimes to accomplish
different goals
1. Regulatory: establish set rules and induce
compliance. Oil pollution
2. Programmatic: establish ongoing programs for things
that don’t exist otherwise. International Monetary Fund and World
Bank.
3. Procedural: ongoing process for making complex and
interdependent decisions. Scientific research regimes. International
whaling commission or fisheries treaty
B. Defining effectiveness: different definitions
1. Variety of definitions for any regime – what would it mean in a
given regime?
a) What’s the proper definition of success of NAFTA?
2. Behavior-changing: compliance with rules, but can be broader.
3. Problem-solving: have you resolved problem that motivated creation
of regime?
a) Behavior change not always sufficient. Too late, too little, too
hard problem.
b) Can’t solve some problems. Can only manage them.
4. Goal achievement vs. Counterfactual definition of effectiveness
a) Did regime lead to achievement of goals?
b) Did regime lead to outcomes that were different than would have
been otherwise?
c) Glass is half empty, Glass is half full: often regimes fail at
goal achievement effectiveness but succeed at counterfactual
effectiveness. E.g., whaling, endangered species, tariffs (not yet
zero)
VIII. Summary
A. What are regimes?
B. Why do they form?
C. What they do?
D. When do they succeed?
