Hostname: page-component-586b7cd67f-vdxz6 Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-11-22T22:02:29.007Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false
  • English
  • Français

The Limits of “Rational Design”

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  15 April 2003

John S. Duffield
Get access

Abstract

“The Rational Design of International Institutions” (special issue of IO, Autumn 2001) makes a significant contribution to the theoretical literature on international institutions. It is important, however, to recognize the limits of both the Rational Design project in its current form and the conclusions that can be drawn from the special issue about the project's usefulness and validity. This article evaluates the project on its own terms, as a rationalist attempt to explain variation in international institutions. I identify three significant sets of limitations: those of the scope of the project, those of the analytical framework, and those of the efforts that are made to evaluate the framework through empirical analysis. Although the first set of limitations is largely a matter of choice, the last two raise questions about how much of an advance the special issue in fact represents. Nevertheless, these shortcomings are not absolute—they can be remedied through further theoretical and empirical research.

Type
Comment and Response
Information
International Organization , Volume 57 , Issue 2 , Spring 2003 , pp. 411 - 430
Copyright
Copyright © The IO Foundation 2003

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

References

Abbott, Kenneth W., Keohane, Robert O., Moravcsik, Andrew, Slaughter, Anne-Marie, and Snidal, Duncan. 2000. The Concept of Legalization. International Organization 54 (3):401–19.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Goldstein, Judith, and Keohane, Robert O.. 1993. Ideas and Foreign Policy: An Analytical Framework. In Ideas and Foreign Policy: Beliefs, Institutions, and Political Change, edited by Goldstein, Judith and Keohane, Robert O., 3–30. Ithaca, N.Y.: Cornell University Press.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Gruber, Lloyd Gerard. 2000. Ruling the World: Power Politics and the Rise of Supranational Institutions. Princeton, N.J.: Princeton University Press.Google Scholar
Keohane, Robert O. 1989. International Institutions and State Power: Essays in International Relations Theory. Boulder, Colo.: Westview Press.Google Scholar
Koremenos, Barbara, Lipson, Charles, and Snidal, Duncan. 2001a. Rational Design: Looking Back to Move Forward. International Organization 55 (4):1051–82.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Koremenos, Barbara, Lipson, Charles, and Snidal, Duncan. 2001b. The Rational Design of International Institutions. International Organization 55 (4):761–99.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Krasner, Stephen D. 1983. Structural Causes and Regime Consequences: Regimes as Intervening Variables. In International Regimes, edited by Krasner, Stephen D., 1–21. Ithaca, N.Y.: Cornell University Press.Google Scholar
Krasner, Stephen D. 1991. Global Communications and National Power: Life on the Pareto Frontier. World Politics 43 (3):336–66.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Kratochwil, Friedrich, and Ruggie, John Gerard. 1986. International Organization: A State of the Art on the Art of the State. International Organization 40 (4):754–75.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Kydd, Andrew. 2001. Trust Building, Trust Breaking: The Dilemma of NATO Enlargement. International Organization 55 (4):801–28.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Legro, Jeffrey. 1997. Which Norms Matter? Revisiting the “Failure” of Internationalism. International Organization 51 (1):31–63.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Lipson, Charles. 1991. Why Are Some International Agreements Informal? International Organization 45 (4):495–538.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Martin, Lisa L. 1992a. Coercive Cooperation: Explaining Multilateral Economic Sanctions. Princeton, N.J.: Princeton University Press.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Martin, Lisa L. 1992b. Interests, Power, and Multilateralism. International Organization 46 (4):765–92.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Martin, Lisa L., and Simmons, Beth. 1998. Theories and Empirical Studies of International Institutions. International Organization 52 (4):729–57.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Mattli, Walter. 2001. Private Justice in a Global Economy: From Litigation to Arbitration. International Organization 55 (4):919–47.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Mitchell, Ronald B., and Keilbach, Patricia M.. 2001. Situation Structure and Institutional Design: Reciprocity, Coercion, and Exchange. International Organization 55 (4):891–917.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Morrow, James D. 2001. The Institutional Features of the Prisoners of War Treaties. International Organization 55 (4):971–91.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Pahre, Robert. 2001. Most-Favored-Nation Clauses and Clustered Negotiations. International Organization 55 (4):859–90.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Richards, John E. 1999. Toward a Positive Theory of International Institutions: Regulating International Aviation Markets. International Organization 53 (1):1–37.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Richards, John E. 2001. Institutions for Flying: How States Built a Market in International Aviation Services. International Organization 55 (4):993–1017.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Ruggie, John Gerard. 1983. International Regimes, Transactions, and Change: Embedded Liberalism in the Postwar Economic Order. In International Regimes, edited by Krasner, Stephen D., 195–231. Ithaca, N.Y.: Cornell University Press.Google Scholar
Schauer, Frederick F. 1991. Playing by the Rules: A Philosophical Examination of Rule-Based Decision Making in Law and in Life. New York: Oxford University Press.Google Scholar
Snidal, Duncan. 1985. Coordination Versus Prisoners Dilemma: Implications for International Cooperation and Regimes. American Political Science Review 79 (4):923–42CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Stein, Arthur A. 1983. Coordination and Collaboration: Regimes in an Anarchic World. In International Regimes, edited by Krasner, Stephen D., 115–40. Ithaca, N.Y.: Cornell University Press.Google Scholar
Tallberg, Jonas. 2002. Delegation to Supranational Institutions: Why, How, and with What Consequences? West European Politics 25 (1):23–46.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Wallander, Celeste A. 2000. Institutional Assets and Adaptability: NATO After the Cold War. International Organization 54 (4):705–37.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Wendt, Alexander E. 1999. Social Theory of International Politics. New York: Cambridge University Press.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Wendt, Alexander E. 2001. Driving with the Rearview Mirror: On the Rational Science of Institutional Design. International Organization 55 (4):1019–49.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Young, Oran R. 1989. International Cooperation: Building Regimes for Natural Resources and the Environment. Ithaca, N.Y.: Cornell University Press.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Zürn, Michael. 1997. Assessing State Preferences and Explaining Institutional Choice: The Case of Intra-German Trade. International Studies Quarterly 41 (2):295–320.CrossRefGoogle Scholar