Theoretical perspectives on IGOs

Theories of integration

Theories of governance

Theories of cooperation

Critical theory

Four main theories on IGOs

Theories of integration

Concerned with the processes through which the states that are members of a particular IGO come to merge their sovereignties in various ways, so that, in certain crucial respects, they tend to develop towards becoming a single entity rather than several entirely separate ones. Example: European Union’s complex progression

towards its Treaty of Rome objective of “ever closer union”

Consists of functionalism, neofunctionalism, and federalism

Integration

Main proponent: David Mitrany Argued that process of collaborating in

narrow technical or functional areas will “spill over” into other social and economic fields and eventually more sensitive political areas.

Functionalism

Associated with Ernst Haas Attempted to situate functionalism more fully

within everyday political processes, arguing that transnational constituencies of advocates for closer integration would emerge in the course of functional collaboration, since these would tend increasingly to identify their interests from the point of view of the international institutions within which they worked

Emphasis on elite socialisation and social learning

Neofunctionalism

A belief in the value of ultimate regional (and even global) union, and that seeks to identify ways within federal constitutions of reconciling local demands for full representation of their interests with the need for effective central government

Federalism

Theories of cooperation

Premised on the realist and neorealist thinking that states in a condition of international anarchy will inevitably be self-interested, power-seeking and competitive actors, with virtually no real prospect of more than minimal, short-term collaboration or of IGOs developing in the kinds of ways envisaged by integration theories

Rather than focusing upon the prospects for merging of sovereignty , many other theorists accept the basic Realist portrayal of states as self-interested ‘rational actors’ but seek to identify reasons why states might, nonetheless, cooperate in international institutions

Cooperation

Theories of governance

Denotes a world order, even in the absence of formal government, enduring structures of rules, norms, and institutions have emerged in many areas of international life

Wolfgang H. Reinicke argues that the interaction amongst governments, nongovernmental organizations and IGOs has produced a regulatory network that enmeshes and constrains government

Governance

A term used by theorists as an attempt to comprehend the most developed and complex governance structure, the EU

A term that aims to capture the notion of shared and negotiated power in a new kind of political context

Emerging Polity

Denotes the processes through which the EU endeavours to reach a consensual collective decisions that accommodate its members’ separate national interests and identities

Consociationalism

Critical theory

A shift of emphasis from ‘positivist’ and empiricist perspectives that try to employ scientific methodologies to conceiving of theory in transformative and ‘emancipatory’ terms (Habermas, early members of Frankfurt School, Robert Cox, Andrew Linklater and other IR theorists)

Focused on global capitalism as the principal international structure, rather than the international anarchy and on the oppressive and exploitative consequences to which they see this as giving rise (Marxists and neo-Marxists)

Critical theory

Argued that existing power structures and discursive practices have produced unequal and hierarchical relationships that particularly affect women (feminists)

Critical theory