IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/spr/revint/v14y2019i3d10.1007_s11558-018-9314-7.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

Why national parliamentarians join international organizations

Author

Listed:
  • Thomas Malang

    (University of Konstanz)

Abstract

It is customary to argue that international organizations (IOs) are very much dominated by national executives, with national parliaments wielding no or at best marginal influence. According to this accepted wisdom, there cannot be many reasons for national parliaments and their members to be active within IOs. However, we can observe a movement towards the parliamentarization of IOs, materialized in a growing number of parliamentary bodies with increasing competencies that accompany governmental actions and decisions. My paper wants to shed light on the underlying incentive for members of national parliaments (MPs) to engage in these international parliamentary assemblies (IPAs). Proceeding from the assumption that IPAs can enable parliamentarians to fulfil their representation and control function, I argue that (1) district level factors related to internationalization can explain why some MPs become members of IPAs, and (2) opposition parties can use the information generated in IPAs to control governmental activities in International Organizations. I test the claims with data of all parliamentarians of the recent legislative period of the German Bundestag and personal interviews with 10 IPA members. The results suggest that especially district incentives are positive predictors for membership in the different assemblies, whereas variance in membership can hardly be explained by party-level factors.

Suggested Citation

  • Thomas Malang, 2019. "Why national parliamentarians join international organizations," The Review of International Organizations, Springer, vol. 14(3), pages 407-430, September.
    • Handle: RePEc:spr:revint:v:14:y:2019:i:3:d:10.1007_s11558-018-9314-7
    DOI: 10.1007/s11558-018-9314-7
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: http://link.springer.com/10.1007/s11558-018-9314-7
    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/s11558-018-9314-7?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. Torsten Persson & Gerard Roland & Guido Tabellini, 2000. "Comparative Politics and Public Finance," Journal of Political Economy, University of Chicago Press, vol. 108(6), pages 1121-1161, December.
    2. Tapio Raunio, 2009. "National parliaments and European integration," ARENA Working Papers 9, ARENA.
    3. Hiscox, Michael J., 2002. "Commerce, Coalitions, and Factor Mobility: Evidence from Congressional Votes on Trade Legislation," American Political Science Review, Cambridge University Press, vol. 96(3), pages 593-608, September.
    4. Milner, Helen V. & Tingley, Dustin H., 2011. "Who Supports Global Economic Engagement? The Sources of Preferences in American Foreign Economic Policy," International Organization, Cambridge University Press, vol. 65(1), pages 37-68, January.
    5. Pevehouse, Jon C., 2002. "Democracy from the Outside-In? International Organizations and Democratization," International Organization, Cambridge University Press, vol. 56(3), pages 515-549, July.
    6. Jonas Tallberg & Thomas Sommerer & Theresa Squatrito, 2016. "Democratic memberships in international organizations: Sources of institutional design," The Review of International Organizations, Springer, vol. 11(1), pages 59-87, March.
    7. Roland Vaubel, 2006. "Principal-agent problems in international organizations," The Review of International Organizations, Springer, vol. 1(2), pages 125-138, June.
    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. Federica Genovese & Gerald Schneider, 2020. "Smoke with fire: Financial crises and the demand for parliamentary oversight in the European Union," The Review of International Organizations, Springer, vol. 15(3), pages 633-665, July.

    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. Lauren L. Ferry & Emilie M. Hafner-Burton & Christina J. Schneider, 2020. "Catch me if you care: International development organizations and national corruption," The Review of International Organizations, Springer, vol. 15(4), pages 767-792, October.
    2. David Autor & David Dorn & Gordon Hanson & Kaveh Majlesi, 2020. "Importing Political Polarization? The Electoral Consequences of Rising Trade Exposure," American Economic Review, American Economic Association, vol. 110(10), pages 3139-3183, October.
    3. Federica Genovese & Richard J. McAlexander & Johannes Urpelainen, 2023. "Institutional roots of international alliances: Party groupings and position similarity at global climate negotiations," The Review of International Organizations, Springer, vol. 18(2), pages 329-359, April.
    4. Jensen, J. Bradford & Quinn, Dennis P. & Weymouth, Stephen, 2017. "Winners and Losers in International Trade: The Effects on US Presidential Voting," International Organization, Cambridge University Press, vol. 71(3), pages 423-457, July.
    5. Amodio, Francesco & Baccini, Leonardo & Chiovelli, Giorgio & Di Maio, Michele, 2020. "Agricultural Comparative Advantage and Legislators’ Support for Trade Agreements," MPRA Paper 102727, University Library of Munich, Germany.
    6. Kiratli, Osman Sabri & Ertan, Sabri Arhan, 2024. "When to Not Respond in Kind? Individuals’ Expectations of the Future and Their Support for Reciprocity in Foreign Policy," EconStor Open Access Articles and Book Chapters, ZBW - Leibniz Information Centre for Economics, vol. 46(2), pages 1013-1035.
    7. Maria J. Debre, 2022. "Clubs of autocrats: Regional organizations and authoritarian survival," The Review of International Organizations, Springer, vol. 17(3), pages 485-511, July.
    8. Cottiero, Christina & Hafner-Burton, Emily & Haggard, Stephan & Prather, Lauren & Schneider, Christina J, 2024. "Illiberal Regimes and International Organizations," Institute on Global Conflict and Cooperation, Working Paper Series qt2bx6b98g, Institute on Global Conflict and Cooperation, University of California.
    9. Persson, Torsten & Tabellini, Guido, 2002. "Political economics and public finance," Handbook of Public Economics, in: A. J. Auerbach & M. Feldstein (ed.), Handbook of Public Economics, edition 1, volume 3, chapter 24, pages 1549-1659, Elsevier.
    10. Eicher, Theo S. & Schreiber, Till, 2010. "Structural policies and growth: Time series evidence from a natural experiment," Journal of Development Economics, Elsevier, vol. 91(1), pages 169-179, January.
    11. Torsten Persson & Guido Tabellini, "undated". "Political Institutions and Policy Outcomes: What are the Stylized Facts?," Working Papers 189, IGIER (Innocenzo Gasparini Institute for Economic Research), Bocconi University.
    12. Martin, Fernando M., 2015. "Debt, inflation and central bank independence," European Economic Review, Elsevier, vol. 79(C), pages 129-150.
    13. Sang-Yong Sim, 2018. "A Comparative Study of the Institutional Factors Influencing Working Poverty: Focusing on Two-parent Households in Developed OECD Countries," LIS Working papers 676, LIS Cross-National Data Center in Luxembourg.
    14. Abdul G. Noury & Gérard Roland, 2002. "More power to the European Parliament? [‘Nice try: Should the Treaty of Nice be ratified’?]," Economic Policy, CEPR, CESifo, Sciences Po;CES;MSH, vol. 17(35), pages 279-319.
    15. Kono Daniel Y., 2011. "Insuring Free Trade: Unemployment Insurance and Trade Policy," Business and Politics, De Gruyter, vol. 13(3), pages 1-31, October.
    16. Rauh, Christian, 2015. "Communicating supranational governance? The salience of EU affairs in the German Bundestag, 1991–2013," EconStor Open Access Articles and Book Chapters, ZBW - Leibniz Information Centre for Economics, vol. 16(1), pages 116-138.
    17. Klaus H. Goetz & Ronny Patz & Theresa Squatrito, 2017. "Resourcing Global Justice: The Resource Management Design of International Courts," Global Policy, London School of Economics and Political Science, vol. 8, pages 62-74, August.
    18. Kelly M. Kadera & Sara McLaughlin Mitchell, 2005. "Heeding Ray's Advice: An Exegesis on Control Variables in Systemic Democratic Peace Research," Conflict Management and Peace Science, Peace Science Society (International), vol. 22(4), pages 311-326, September.
    19. Paola Conconi & Giovanni Facchini & Max F. Steinhardt & Maurizio Zanardi, 2020. "The political economy of trade and migration: Evidence from the U.S. Congress," Economics and Politics, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 32(2), pages 250-278, July.
    20. Lars E. O. Svensson, 2000. "The First Year of the Eurosystem: Inflation Targeting or Not?," American Economic Review, American Economic Association, vol. 90(2), pages 95-99, May.

    More about this item

    Keywords

    International organizations; Domestic politics; Global governance; Democratization; Parliamentary assemblies;
    All these keywords.

    JEL classification:

    • F50 - International Economics - - International Relations, National Security, and International Political Economy - - - General
    • F53 - International Economics - - International Relations, National Security, and International Political Economy - - - International Agreements and Observance; International Organizations
    • F55 - International Economics - - International Relations, National Security, and International Political Economy - - - International Institutional Arrangements

    Statistics

    Access and download statistics

    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:14:y:2019:i:3:d:10.1007_s11558-018-9314-7. 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.