Governance in international trade beyond the state: Collective agency, the actorness of trading blocs, and institutional learning
The character of international cooperation is changing, turning increasingly complex, authoritative, and informal. Importantly, public authority is no longer confined to sovereign states but also exercised beyond the state. Addressing this aspect of international cooperation, this thesis develops a...
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| Format: | Thesis |
| Language: | English |
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2023
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| _version_ | 1811140289157398528 |
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| author | Stiller, KT |
| author2 | Snidal, D |
| author_facet | Snidal, D Stiller, KT |
| author_sort | Stiller, KT |
| collection | OXFORD |
| description | The character of international cooperation is changing, turning increasingly complex, authoritative, and informal. Importantly, public authority is no longer confined to sovereign states but also exercised beyond the state. Addressing this aspect of international cooperation, this thesis develops a theory of transnational public authority that is based on authority-actor relationships rather than organisations. Moving beyond conceptualisations of delegation to international organisations (IOs), it presents a typology of distinct types of transnational actors. Collective agents – one of these types - allow multiple states to jointly act on the group’s authority while maintaining direct control over implementation. It entails an increasingly variable and overlapping geometry of cooperation. The theory is then applied to explain the governance of international trade, where trading blocs emerge as transnational actors. Overwhelmingly operating as collective agents, not authoritative IOs, trading blocs engage in economic diplomacy and negotiate preferential trade agreements (PTAs) with third states. Trading blocs, it is argued, should thus be conceived of as collective political agents instead of static economic entities. Collective negotiations typically are a matter of choice: retaining the authority and capacity to negotiate on their own, trading bloc members have the ability to negotiate PTAs bilaterally and collectively. Collective negotiations are a means to overcome individual capacity constraints or to align intra-bloc rules with those governing external trade. Lastly, institutional diffusion processes from the multilateral trading system to the network of PTAs reveal how states’ exercise of public authority is shaped by the indirect, epistemic influence of transnational actors. Learning experiences can help states overcome limitations caused by capacity constraints and, thus, mitigate heterogeneity in the international system. The empirical sections of this thesis follow a mixed methods approach. Analyses using a range of quantitative methods are complemented with more than 20 interviews with PTA negotiators and officials. |
| first_indexed | 2024-09-25T04:19:37Z |
| format | Thesis |
| id | oxford-uuid:e46a9250-5fd3-42dd-8e57-0ca65b6659ee |
| institution | University of Oxford |
| language | English |
| last_indexed | 2024-09-25T04:19:37Z |
| publishDate | 2023 |
| record_format | dspace |
| spelling | oxford-uuid:e46a9250-5fd3-42dd-8e57-0ca65b6659ee2024-07-31T11:12:46ZGovernance in international trade beyond the state: Collective agency, the actorness of trading blocs, and institutional learningThesishttp://purl.org/coar/resource_type/c_db06uuid:e46a9250-5fd3-42dd-8e57-0ca65b6659eeInternational relationsInternational cooperationEnglishHyrax Deposit2023Stiller, KTSnidal, DPelc, KHoekman, BThe character of international cooperation is changing, turning increasingly complex, authoritative, and informal. Importantly, public authority is no longer confined to sovereign states but also exercised beyond the state. Addressing this aspect of international cooperation, this thesis develops a theory of transnational public authority that is based on authority-actor relationships rather than organisations. Moving beyond conceptualisations of delegation to international organisations (IOs), it presents a typology of distinct types of transnational actors. Collective agents – one of these types - allow multiple states to jointly act on the group’s authority while maintaining direct control over implementation. It entails an increasingly variable and overlapping geometry of cooperation. The theory is then applied to explain the governance of international trade, where trading blocs emerge as transnational actors. Overwhelmingly operating as collective agents, not authoritative IOs, trading blocs engage in economic diplomacy and negotiate preferential trade agreements (PTAs) with third states. Trading blocs, it is argued, should thus be conceived of as collective political agents instead of static economic entities. Collective negotiations typically are a matter of choice: retaining the authority and capacity to negotiate on their own, trading bloc members have the ability to negotiate PTAs bilaterally and collectively. Collective negotiations are a means to overcome individual capacity constraints or to align intra-bloc rules with those governing external trade. Lastly, institutional diffusion processes from the multilateral trading system to the network of PTAs reveal how states’ exercise of public authority is shaped by the indirect, epistemic influence of transnational actors. Learning experiences can help states overcome limitations caused by capacity constraints and, thus, mitigate heterogeneity in the international system. The empirical sections of this thesis follow a mixed methods approach. Analyses using a range of quantitative methods are complemented with more than 20 interviews with PTA negotiators and officials. |
| spellingShingle | International relations International cooperation Stiller, KT Governance in international trade beyond the state: Collective agency, the actorness of trading blocs, and institutional learning |
| title | Governance in international trade beyond the state: Collective agency, the actorness of trading blocs, and institutional learning |
| title_full | Governance in international trade beyond the state: Collective agency, the actorness of trading blocs, and institutional learning |
| title_fullStr | Governance in international trade beyond the state: Collective agency, the actorness of trading blocs, and institutional learning |
| title_full_unstemmed | Governance in international trade beyond the state: Collective agency, the actorness of trading blocs, and institutional learning |
| title_short | Governance in international trade beyond the state: Collective agency, the actorness of trading blocs, and institutional learning |
| title_sort | governance in international trade beyond the state collective agency the actorness of trading blocs and institutional learning |
| topic | International relations International cooperation |
| work_keys_str_mv | AT stillerkt governanceininternationaltradebeyondthestatecollectiveagencytheactornessoftradingblocsandinstitutionallearning |