IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/spr/revint/v15y2020i2d10.1007_s11558-019-09354-0.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

Do citizens evaluate international cooperation based on information about procedural and outcome quality?

Author

Listed:
  • Thomas Bernauer

    (ETH Zurich and University of Bern)

  • Steffen Mohrenberg

    (ETH Zurich and University of Bern)

  • Vally Koubi

    (ETH Zurich and University of Bern)

Abstract

Conventional wisdom holds that public support for international cooperation is crucial to its viability and effectiveness. Elite debates focus heavily on procedural and outcome characteristics of international cooperation when assessing the latter. However, we know very little about whether and how citizens’ evaluation of international cooperation efforts are also based on such process and outcome considerations, as informed via cues they receive from various sources. Procedural characteristics pertain to how international cooperation and resulting agreements are established and implemented. Output characteristics pertain to how effective, costly, and advantageous international cooperation is. Based on three survey experiments in Germany and the United Kingdom (N = 3000 each), and with an empirical focus on transboundary air pollution in Europe, we examine (1) to what extent information on process and outcomes of international cooperation matters for public support, (2) whether information on the prospect of effective and advantageous outcomes reduces public demand for process improvement in international cooperation, and vice versa, and (3) whether high process quality could make citizens more tolerant of lower quality outcomes, and vice versa? The results show that, from the viewpoint of citizens, both process and outcome characteristics matter. While process-related evaluations of citizens are hardly affected by information on the prospect of high or low outcome quality, citizens are less tolerant of low outcome quality when process quality is low. These results suggest that enhancing process quality is worthwhile, particularly for policy challenges requiring long-term and incremental efforts.

Suggested Citation

  • Thomas Bernauer & Steffen Mohrenberg & Vally Koubi, 2020. "Do citizens evaluate international cooperation based on information about procedural and outcome quality?," The Review of International Organizations, Springer, vol. 15(2), pages 505-529, April.
    • Handle: RePEc:spr:revint:v:15:y:2020:i:2:d:10.1007_s11558-019-09354-0
    DOI: 10.1007/s11558-019-09354-0
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: http://link.springer.com/10.1007/s11558-019-09354-0
    File Function: Abstract
    Download Restriction: Access to the full text of the articles in this series is restricted.
    File URL: https://libkey.io/10.1007/s11558-019-09354-0?utm_source=ideas
    LibKey link: if access is restricted and if your library uses this service, LibKey will redirect you to where you can use your library subscription to access this item
    ---><---

    As the access to this document is restricted, you may want to search for a different version of it.

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Thomas Bernauer & Liam F. McGrath, 2016. "Simple reframing unlikely to boost public support for climate policy," Nature Climate Change, Nature, vol. 6(7), pages 680-683, July.
    2. Francis Cheneval & Frank Schimmelfennig, 2013. "The Case for Demoicracy in the European Union," Journal of Common Market Studies, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 51(2), pages 334-350, March.
    3. Hibbing, John R., 2001. "Process Preferences and American Politics: What the People Want Government to Be," American Political Science Review, Cambridge University Press, vol. 95(1), pages 145-153, March.
    4. Liesbet Hooghe & Gary Marks, 2015. "Delegation and pooling in international organizations," The Review of International Organizations, Springer, vol. 10(3), pages 305-328, September.
    5. Caldeira, Gregory A. & Gibson, James L., 1995. "The Legitimacy of the Court of Justice in the European Union: Models of Institutional Support," American Political Science Review, Cambridge University Press, vol. 89(2), pages 356-376, June.
    6. Rolf Lidskog & Ingemar Elander, 2010. "Addressing climate change democratically. Multi-level governance, transnational networks and governmental structures," Sustainable Development, John Wiley & Sons, Ltd., vol. 18(1), pages 32-41.
    7. Sara B. Hobolt, 2012. "Citizen Satisfaction with Democracy in the European Union," Journal of Common Market Studies, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 50(S1), pages 88-105, March.
    8. Page, Benjamin I. & Shapiro, Robert Y., 1983. "Effects of Public Opinion on Policy," American Political Science Review, Cambridge University Press, vol. 77(1), pages 175-190, March.
    9. Anderson, Christopher J. & Reichert, M. Shawn, 1995. "Economic Benefits and Support for Membership in the E.U.: A Cross-National Analysis," Journal of Public Policy, Cambridge University Press, vol. 15(3), pages 231-249, September.
    10. Eric S. Dickson & Sanford C. Gordon & Gregory A. Huber, 2015. "Institutional Sources of Legitimate Authority: An Experimental Investigation," American Journal of Political Science, John Wiley & Sons, vol. 59(1), pages 109-127, January.
    11. Grieco, Joseph & Powell, Robert & Snidal, Duncan, 1993. "The Relative-Gains Problem for International Cooperation," American Political Science Review, Cambridge University Press, vol. 87(3), pages 729-743, September.
    12. Chapman, Terrence L., 2009. "Audience Beliefs and International Organization Legitimacy," International Organization, Cambridge University Press, vol. 63(4), pages 733-764, October.
    13. Tallberg, Jonas & Sommerer, Thomas & Squatrito, Theresa & Jönsson, Christer, 2014. "Explaining the Transnational Design of International Organizations," International Organization, Cambridge University Press, vol. 68(4), pages 741-774, October.
    14. Tana Johnson, 2011. "Guilt by association: The link between states’ influence and the legitimacy of intergovernmental organizations," The Review of International Organizations, Springer, vol. 6(1), pages 57-84, March.
    15. Julia Morse & Robert Keohane, 2014. "Contested multilateralism," The Review of International Organizations, Springer, vol. 9(4), pages 385-412, December.
    16. Hainmueller, Jens & Hopkins, Daniel J. & Yamamoto, Teppei, 2014. "Causal Inference in Conjoint Analysis: Understanding Multidimensional Choices via Stated Preference Experiments," Political Analysis, Cambridge University Press, vol. 22(1), pages 1-30, January.
    17. Koenig-Archibugi, Mathias, 2004. "Explaining Government Preferences for Institutional Change in EU Foreign and Security Policy," International Organization, Cambridge University Press, vol. 58(1), pages 137-174, February.
    18. Jacob M. Montgomery & Brendan Nyhan & Michelle Torres, 2018. "How Conditioning on Posttreatment Variables Can Ruin Your Experiment and What to Do about It," American Journal of Political Science, John Wiley & Sons, vol. 62(3), pages 760-775, July.
    19. Greenwood, Justin, 2007. "Organized Civil Society and Democratic Legitimacy in the European Union," British Journal of Political Science, Cambridge University Press, vol. 37(2), pages 333-357, April.
    20. Keohane, Robert O. & Macedo, Stephen & Moravcsik, Andrew, 2009. "Democracy-Enhancing Multilateralism," International Organization, Cambridge University Press, vol. 63(1), pages 1-31, January.
    21. Powell, Robert, 1991. "Absolute and Relative Gains in International Relations Theory," American Political Science Review, Cambridge University Press, vol. 85(4), pages 1303-1320, December.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Citations

    Citations are extracted by the CitEc Project, subscribe to its RSS feed for this item.
    as


    Cited by:

    1. Pieter Vanhuysse & Michael Jankowski & Markus Tepe, 2021. "Vaccine alliance building blocks: a conjoint experiment on popular support for international COVID-19 cooperation formats," Policy Sciences, Springer;Society of Policy Sciences, vol. 54(3), pages 493-506, September.

    Most related items

    These are the items that most often cite the same works as this one and are cited by the same works as this one.
    1. Jonas Tallberg & Michael Zürn, 2019. "The legitimacy and legitimation of international organizations: introduction and framework," The Review of International Organizations, Springer, vol. 14(4), pages 581-606, December.
    2. Brilé Anderson & Thomas Bernauer & Aya Kachi, 2019. "Does international pooling of authority affect the perceived legitimacy of global governance?," The Review of International Organizations, Springer, vol. 14(4), pages 661-683, December.
    3. Anderson, Brilé & Bernauer, Thomas & Kachi, Aya, 2017. "Towards a More Nuanced Understanding of How International Pooling of Authority May Affect the Perceived Legitimacy of Global Governance," Working papers 2017/16, Faculty of Business and Economics - University of Basel.
    4. Henning Schmidtke, 2019. "Elite legitimation and delegitimation of international organizations in the media: Patterns and explanations," The Review of International Organizations, Springer, vol. 14(4), pages 633-659, December.
    5. Elizabeth M. Moore & Kristin Brandl & Luis Alfonso Dau, 2023. "Intergovernmental organizations, institutional schisms, and business environments," Journal of International Business Policy, Palgrave Macmillan, vol. 6(2), pages 141-158, June.
    6. Thomas Sommerer & Theresa Squatrito & Jonas Tallberg & Magnus Lundgren, 2022. "Decision-making in international organizations: institutional design and performance," The Review of International Organizations, Springer, vol. 17(4), pages 815-845, October.
    7. Adam William Chalmers & Lisa Maria Dellmuth, 2015. "Fiscal redistribution and public support for European integration," European Union Politics, , vol. 16(3), pages 386-407, September.
    8. Axel Dreher & Katharina Michaelowa, 2008. "The political economy of international organizations," The Review of International Organizations, Springer, vol. 3(4), pages 331-334, December.
    9. Jon Hovi, 2001. "Decentralized Enforcement, Sequential Bargaining and the Clean Development Mechanism," Nordic Journal of Political Economy, Nordic Journal of Political Economy, vol. 27, pages 135-152.
    10. Kantorowicz, Jaroslaw & Kantorowicz-Reznichenko, Elena, 2023. "Enhancing Public Support for International Sanctions," OSF Preprints a2dyq, Center for Open Science.
    11. Michal Parízek, 2017. "Control, soft information, and the politics of international organizations staffing," The Review of International Organizations, Springer, vol. 12(4), pages 559-583, December.
    12. Mayer, Sebastian, 2010. "Kollidieren die Güter? Juridische und politische Reaktionen auf Zielkonflikte internationalisierter Sicherheitspolitk," TranState Working Papers 130, University of Bremen, Collaborative Research Center 597: Transformations of the State.
    13. Tobias Lenz & Besir Ceka & Liesbet Hooghe & Gary Marks & Alexandr Burilkov, 2023. "Discovering cooperation: Endogenous change in international organizations," The Review of International Organizations, Springer, vol. 18(4), pages 631-666, October.
    14. Bernd Schlipphak & Paul Meiners & Osman Sabri Kiratli, 2022. "Crisis affectedness, elite cues and IO public legitimacy," The Review of International Organizations, Springer, vol. 17(4), pages 877-898, October.
    15. Eugenia C. Heldt & Thomas Dörfler, 2022. "Orchestrating private investors for development: How the World Bank revitalizes," Regulation & Governance, John Wiley & Sons, vol. 16(4), pages 1382-1398, October.
    16. Matthias Ecker-Ehrhardt, 2018. "Self-legitimation in the face of politicization: Why international organizations centralized public communication," The Review of International Organizations, Springer, vol. 13(4), pages 519-546, December.
    17. James S. Mosher, 2003. "Relative Gains Concerns when the Number of States in the International System Increases," Journal of Conflict Resolution, Peace Science Society (International), vol. 47(5), pages 642-668, October.
    18. Barbara Dluhosch & Daniel Horgos & Klaus W. Zimmermann, 2016. "EU enlargement and satisfaction with democracy: a peculiar case of immiserizing growth," Constitutional Political Economy, Springer, vol. 27(3), pages 273-298, September.
    19. Christopher J Williams & Shaun Bevan, 2019. "The effect of public attitudes toward the European Union on European Commission policy activity," European Union Politics, , vol. 20(4), pages 608-628, December.
    20. Jonas Tallberg & Soetkin Verhaegen, 2020. "The Legitimacy of International Institutions among Rising and Established Powers," Global Policy, London School of Economics and Political Science, vol. 11(S3), pages 115-126, October.

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:spr:revint:v:15:y:2020:i:2:d:10.1007_s11558-019-09354-0. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    If CitEc recognized a bibliographic reference but did not link an item in RePEc to it, you can help with this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: Sonal Shukla or Springer Nature Abstracting and Indexing (email available below). General contact details of provider: http://www.springer.com .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.