Domestic Politics and International Organizations

T. Renee Bowen, J. Lawrence Broz and Christina J. Schneider

No 33526, NBER Working Papers from National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc

Abstract: This introduction to the Special Issue reviews the existing literature on the domestic politics of international organizations (IOs), presenting them within a unified theoretical framework. We emphasize the central role of domestic forces in the study of IOs: how individual preferences are channeled through domestic political institutions, and ultimately inform a government’s foreign policy decisions toward and within IOs. We show that these forces can be distilled into a game between citizens in which they select welfare weights to be assigned to citizens across the globe. We refer to this as the Citizens’ IO Game. The contributions in this Special Issue and previous studies are discussed in the framework of the Citizens’ IO Game, which offers fresh insights into the intersection of domestic constitutions, politics, resource distribution, and IO membership and policy. We construct a specific application to trade policy to further clarify the role of the framework. Using this example, we show that global externalities can never be fully internalized through IOs when sovereignty is prioritized. We conclude by suggesting directions for future research on the domestic politics of IOs.

JEL-codes: D72 F13 P51 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2025-02
Note: ITI POL
References: Add references at CitEc
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Published as T. Renee Bowen & J. Lawrence Broz & Christina J. Schneider, 2026. "Domestic politics and international organizations," The Review of International Organizations, Springer, vol. 21(1), pages 1-40, March, DOI: 10.1007/s11558-025-09591-6.
Published as T. Renee Bowen & J. Lawrence Broz & Christina J. Schneider, 2026. "Domestic politics and international organizations," The Review of International Organizations, vol 21(1), pages 1-40.

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