Institutional Overlap Research Articles

Talk of Family: How Institutional Overlap Shapes Family-Related Discourse Across Social Class

Talk of Family: How Institutional Overlap Shapes Family-Related Discourse Across Social Class

Towards an integrated approach to EU foreign policy? Horizontal spillover across the humanitarian–development and the security–migration interfaces

ABSTRACT Combining theoretical insights from works on policy integration and institutional overlap, this article develops a novel analytical framework to account for variations in policy integration in the EU’s external relations. We argue that the greater the level of institutional fit between different areas of the EU’s external relations, the greater the prospects for deepening policy integration through a ‘horizontal spillover’ mechanism. Specifically, we argue that network formation, policy entrepreneurship and political socialisation are key elements of this horizontal spillover mechanism leading towards greater policy integration. Empirically, we explore the relevance of our theoretical claims for the interface between the EU’s development policy and its humanitarian aid policy and between the CSDP and external migration policy in the AFSJ domain. Whilst both policy interfaces have been marked by growing functional pressures, we show that differences in institutional fit have resulted in varying degrees of progress in policy integration.

Institutional overlap and the survival of intergovernmental organisations

A burgeoning literature emphasises the role of favourable external conditions and institutional design as key drivers of the survival of intergovernmental organisations. This article focuses on institutional overlap as a hitherto overlooked determinant of IGO survival. Studies on institutional complexity posit that overlap – the extent to which organisations perform similar tasks to address similar problems for some common members – may decrease the survivability of IGOs due to rule conflicts, institutional paralysis, and competitive pressures for limited resources. Contrary to this perspective, this article argues that greater overlap increases the likelihood of IGO survival for two reasons. First, similar IGOs will survive as member states use them to pursue forum-shopping strategies. Second, overlap enables IGO secretariats to draw on networks of support from other IGOs, rendering organisations that densely overlap with others more resilient. To test these propositions, the article combines data on institutional overlap in global governance and the survival of the 534 IGOs contained in the Correlates of War IGO dataset. Non-linear regression analysis finds that where organisations overlap more with existing organisations in terms of governance tasks and issue areas, the likelihood of IGO survival increases. Further analysis suggests that this result is driven by the forum-shopping strategies of powerful member states. Given that contemporary world politics is governed by an increasingly dense network of IGOs, these results hold important implications for the study of IGO survivability and the evolution of global governance more broadly.

Managers of complex change? How United Nations treaty secretariats jointly govern institutional interplay in global environmental governance

AbstractResearch on international bureaucracies, such as treaty secretariats, has predominantly focused on broadening our understanding of their role, function, and influence within their respective regulatory domains. However, the potential for treaty secretariats to manage situations of institutional overlap by coordinating with other agencies across policy areas has remained understudied. This article offers new empirical and theoretical insights for studying collective agency and coordination mechanisms in instances of institutional interaction within hybrid regime complexes. Specifically, it investigates how the treaty secretariats of the Rio Conventions under the United Nations employ joint interplay management as a means to improve institutional coherence within the climate change, biodiversity loss, and desertification nexus. Collectively, the public agencies aim to advance knowledge and discourse, influence norm‐building processes and regulation, or build capacity and support the joint implementation of policy objectives addressing the interlinked environmental problems. They do this by interacting with various actors across governance levels, including national governments, transnational initiatives, private actors, or civil society. By tracing the process linking joint activities with effects of such interactions, this qualitative case study makes a conceptual contribution by extrapolating a mechanistic theory for joint interplay management. The article demonstrates that treaty secretariats have to contend with challenges of resource allocation, diverging mandates, leadership priorities, and the degree of politicization and timing which frequently intervene stages of strategizing and executing joint activities. The results highlight that joint interplay management can be most impactful when secretariats employ orchestration practices through joint outreach and advocacy to advance coherent institutional responses to interdependent environmental problems.

Value differentiation, policy change and cooperation in international regime complexes

In many issue areas in international political economy (IPE), interstate cooperation is governed by a dense network of distinct but overlapping international institutions. Whether this environment of ‘regime complexity’ strengthens or undermines cooperation is a subject of intense debate. Some argue that overlapping institutions enhance legitimacy and flexibility, while others claim that opportunistic forum shopping enables states to escape compliance with rigorous rules. This article reconciles this debate, demonstrating that regime complexity has contrasting effects depending on the degree of value differentiation among institutions. In issue areas where undifferentiated institutions function as substitutes, forum shopping will reduce the regime’s ability to discipline state behavior. However, in issue areas where institutions are differentiated by value – i.e. the benefits they provide increase as rules become more rigorous – institutional overlap can increase policy change among states. I demonstrate these dynamics formally and provide empirical evidence in a comparative analysis of the regime complexes for election observation and forest-related carbon offsets.

Institutional Overlap in Global Governance and the Design of Intergovernmental Organizations

How does the increasingly dense network of overlapping institutions in global governance affect the design of intergovernmental organizations (IGOs)? We argue that institutional overlap can unleash mimicking dynamics whereby states design new IGOs using the design of existing organizations that engage in similar issue areas and perform similar governance tasks for similar member states as templates. Using design templates from the reference group of overlapping institutions is a strategy for boundedly rational designers in situations of complexity because it reduces uncertainty and lowers the costs of identifying suitable institutional solutions. Overlap therefore increases the design similarity between new and pre-existing IGOs, specifically where pre-existing organizations have institutional designs that made them endure. Introducing a new measure of institutional overlap in global governance and new data on the design and governance tasks of the 534 IGOs from the Correlates of War Project, we corroborate our argument using regression analyses. Our results hold important lessons for theories of institutional design, regime complexity, and global governance more broadly.

Local Welfare Systems and Health Inequalities: The Effects of Institutional Overlapping and Local Variations.

A growing research agenda shows the importance of local welfare systems in understanding socio-spatial inequalities in health. Welfare services provided by local governments overlap with those provided by other levels of government. Thus, differences in the provision of welfare services between municipalities could explain differences in residents' health, moderating the magnitude of health inequalities if local governments deploy actions capable of positively influencing the social determinants of health. This article attempts to analyse this idea in the Spanish case, exploring the influence of local policies according to the orientation of municipal spending on three indicators of the population's health status: self-perceived health, healthy practices and activity limitations due to health problems. A multilevel cross-sectional study was designed using information from two waves of the 2006-2007 and 2011-2012 National Health Survey for the population aged 15 years and older (N = 31,378) residing in Spanish municipalities of 20,000 inhabitants or over (N = 373). The results show that the magnitude of inequalities in self-perceived health, in the adoption of healthy practices and in daily activity limitations by social class are smaller as municipalities" spending was oriented towards policy areas considered as redistributive. Therefore, the proposed institutional overlap thesis could help understand the role of subnational governments on the magnitude of health inequalities, as well as in comparative analysis between countries with institutional systems in which local governments have a greater or lesser capacity to provide welfare services.

The innovation potential of Islamic crowdfunding platforms in contributing to sustainable development

PurposeThis paper aims at explaining variances in the contribution of Islamic crowdfunding platforms (ICFPs) to sustainable development (SD), by adopting an institutional logic perspective (ILP). ICFPs represent a dual institutional overlap between two logics (the Western-mainstream and the Islamic logic) which have an impact on corporate social responsibility (CSR) interpretations, practices, and decisions and whose conflicts are mitigated by choosing different resolution strategies. The authors aim at showing that this choice affects SD differently.Design/methodology/approachThe authors develop a conceptual typology through the following steps: (1) choice of variables and identification of corresponding variable domains, through literature review. Variables chosen are the elemental CSR dimensions related to various social and environmental corporate responsibilities to whom diverse meaning and emphasis are given under the Western-mainstream and Islamic logics. (2) Identification of three distinct ideal types of ICFPs, building on different resolution strategies to mitigate conflicts between logics; (3) development, for each ideal type, of a set of implications related to SD; (4) implementation of a first test aiming at assigning real cases to each ideal type.FindingsThe authors identify Western-mimicking (platforms adopting as resolution strategy decoupling or compartmentalizing strategies), Islamic-driven (platforms focusing on one prevailing logic) and Syncretism-inspired (platforms adopting hybridizing practices) ideal-types.Originality/valueIt is the first paper suggesting ILP to explain variances in crowdfunding platforms' role in addressing SD. It focuses on a specific type of CF platforms till now neglected.

Collaboration, cooperation, coordination: a history of the Bretton Woods twins’ efforts to work together

Why and how international organizations (IOs) collaborate, cooperate and coordinate (the 3Cs) are important but understudied issues in international political economy today. The three terms are rarely defined in the IR literature or by the IOs themselves and are often used interchangeably. However, the differences matter in terms of when, how and why staff of different IOs are expected to work together, and whether and how such efforts contribute to IO performance. This article develops the concepts of the 3Cs, drawing from work in the public administration, management and organizational design fields. It illustrates ways in which the differences matter by examining the history of efforts by the International Monetary Fund (IMF) and World Bank to work together. The two Bretton Woods siblings were explicitly designed to be complementary partners at the apex of the post-World War II global economic order. I argue that formal collaboration efforts between the Fund and the Bank took place through at least 25 attempts by the two institutions to define how to work together, and may be categorized into four different, sometimes overlapping approaches, from basic information sharing to fully engaged joint initiatives. What they have called ‘collaboration’ is in fact a range of engagement. Efforts by the Fund and Bank to work more closely together have been an ongoing struggle, driven by unavoidable institutional overlap, which intensified at times of systemic change and external shock. This case is important to the study of how IOs work together, given these institutions have a unique relationship and may be seen as a most-likely case of successful collaboration.

Shaping institutional overlap: NATO’s responses to EU security and defence initiatives since 2014

This article analyses how and when institutional actors can shape overlap with other international organisations. Growing overlap either poses the threat of marginalisation to the incumbent organisation or offers opportunities for cooperation. Institutional actors should therefore be expected to try shape the relations with the overlapping organisation to protect their own. The article theorises that institutional actors can shape overlap if they possess sufficient institutional capacity and face a favourable opportunity structure. Whether institutional actors embrace or resist overlap, in turn, depends on their perception of the nature of the domain expansion of the other international organisation. Relying on 20 interviews with senior officials, the article probes the argument against the case of the growing overlap between the North Atlantic Treaty Organization and the European Union resulting from the latter’s recent security and defence initiatives. Contrary to most expectations, it finds that the North Atlantic Treaty Organization actors played a consequential role in restructuring the relationship with the European Union.

Measuring institutional overlap in global governance

Over the past decade, an increasingly sophisticated literature has sought to capture the nature, sources, and consequences of a novel empirical phenomenon in world politics: the growing complexity of global governance. However, this literature has paid only limited attention to questions of measurement, which is a prerequisite for a more comprehensive understanding of global governance complexity across space and time. In taking a first step in this direction, we make two contributions in the article. First, we propose new quantitative measures that gauge the extent of complexity in global governance, which we conceptualize as the degree to which global governance institutions overlap. Dyadic, weighted, directed-dyadic, and monadic measures enable a multifaceted understanding of this important development in world politics. Second, we illustrate these measures by applying them to an updated version of the most comprehensive data set on the design of intergovernmental organizations (IGOs): the Measure of International Authority (MIA). This allows us to identify cross-sectional and temporal patterns in the extent to which important IGOs, which tend to form the core of sprawling regime complexes in many issue areas, overlap. We conclude by outlining notable implications for, and potential applications of, our measures for research on institutional design and evolution, legitimacy, and legitimation, as well as effectiveness and performance. This discussion underscores the utility of the proposed measures, as both dependent and independent variables, to researchers examining the sources and consequences of institutional overlap in global governance and beyond.

Institutional overlap and access to medicines in MERCOSUR and UNASUR (2008–2018). Cooperation before the collapse?

ABSTRACT The proliferation of international and regional organisations in the last decades led to increasing overlap of memberships and mandates in social policy areas. Whereas the literature has explored the benefits and perils of institutional overlap though neglecting the social policy dimension of such processes, studies on regionalism have focused on single cases of regional organisations. This paper breaks new ground by examining the effects of the overlap in membership, health mandates and institutional mechanisms between the Common Market of the South (MERCOSUR) and the Union of South American Nations (UNASUR) between 2008 and 2018. It focuses on two cases of access to medicines: the creation of the medicine price bank and the price negotiation of high-cost medicines. Our argument is that the overlap was positive, leading to an incipient trend towards cooperation. This was facilitated by the membership structure, the expertise already accumulated in the region and the relations and networks among those involved in health regional cooperation. Overall, the article deepens our understanding of the conditions under which regional organisations, even in the context of institutional overlap, can contribute to adequately respond to transnational challenges, which, as global health, are not only persistent, but also profoundly affect our societies.

Impact of Institutional Overlap on Family Firm Governance: An Institutionalist-Agency Perspective

This study examines how institutional overlap of business and family influences the use of governance in family firms. Due to institutional overlap, family firms pursue business-centered economic (BCE) as well as family-centered noneconomic (FCNE) preferences. Drawing on actor-centered institutionalist framework and agency theory, we argue that owing to this overlap, formal family governance is needed to mitigate FCNE goal conflicts between family shareholders and family managers; and formal family governance and board of directors are complementary mechanisms. Based on a 26-country survey of 960 family firms, we find that the use of formal family governance is determined by the extent business decisions take FCNE goals into consideration, agency relations between family shareholders and family managers, and board characteristics (number and ratio of family board and board activeness). These findings lead us to conclude that formal family governance is actually a form of corporate governance mechanism. This study contributes to a social theory of agency and suggest a way for corporate governance literature to bridge macro vs. micro and economic vs. social divides.

Coordination or conflict? The causes and consequences of institutional overlap in a disaggregated world order

AbstractInstitutional overlap emerges not only as an unintended by-product of purposive state action but also as its deliberate result. In two ways, this article expands existing research on the causes and consequences of institutional overlap. First, we establish that three different types of dissatisfaction may lead states to deliberately create institutional overlap: dissatisfaction with substantive norms and rules, dissatisfaction with decision-making rules and dissatisfaction with the institutional fit of an existing governance arrangement for a given cooperation problem. Each type of dissatisfaction triggers a distinct motivation for the creation of institutional overlap: to induce policy change, to increase influence on collective decision-making or to enhance governance effectiveness. Second, we demonstrate that whereas the motivation to induce policy change leads to interface conflicts, the motivations to increase influence on collective decision-making and to enhance governance effectiveness give rise to inter-institutional coordination. Three empirical case studies on global energy governance, the governance of global development banking and global environmental governance probe these analytical claims.

Corporate Governance in Family Firms: towards a model based on Degree of Institutionalization (DI), Structuring Change (SC) and Destructuring Change (RC)

The family firm management literature underrates corporate governance issues both because in family firms the entrepreneur/owner tends to concentrate in his hands almost all the decision power and because the concept of family business is associated with that of small business. On the other hand, the ‘family’ character over firm governance have been traditionally analysed in terms of institutional overlap (family versus business) that causes processes of instability, conflicts, divisions and crisis, both inside the family and between owners and managers. Our paper, after an extremely literature recap, aims at proposing a different point of view on the corporate governance dynamics in family business and a different path to understand the change processes into this organizations adopting a Situationist View of the Organizations (SVO) that is focused on the continuous work of two processes: action and institutionalization, that build, break and rebuild social reality. Under this point of view some topics – institutional processes, coalitional games and power dynamics – suggest different considerations about the processes of governance and power. The concept of actor (or strategic actor) is of particular relevance. It refers to an individual (human actor) or, more often, a coalition of individuals able to act strategically for the protection of their specific interests. The concept of strategic actor goes far beyond the organizational boundaries, as often a coalition is composed by both internal and external members.

Regime Complexity and the Institutions of Crisis and Development Finance

ABSTRACTThe theory of regime complexity offers a useful lens through which to analyse the increasing density of international institutions and the patterns of conflict and cooperation among them. Scholarship on crisis and development finance would benefit from more fully employing this approach to explain the emergence of overlapping institutions and offer recommendations for designing regime complexes. The theory advanced here emphasizes the strategies of key states to use institutional overlap to limit agency ‘drift’ away from their preferences. Prioritizing control often comes at the cost of conflict among the institutions, however, and can thus impede the achievement of financial stability and development goals. The regime complexity approach is distinct from the rational design of institutions, institutional experimentalism and theoretical realism. Drawing on lessons from the euro crisis, this article offers informed conjectures on financial arrangements in the regions of Latin America and East Asia and their interaction with global multilateral institutions, such as the International Monetary Fund.

“The world food crisis is not a fad”: TheMore-with-LessCookbook and Protestant Environmental Spirituality

ABSTRACTThis article examines the spirituality reflected in the 1976 cookbookMore-with-Less. Written by a former Mennonite missionary hoping to provide religious households with a practical way to respond to world hunger, the cookbook's message of a simple diet that could transform users' influence on the world is an early example of the religious environmentalism that has grown increasingly popular among middle-class American Protestants in the last several decades. By examining its historical context, narrating its genesis, and critically assessing the spirituality it recommended, this article argues that the cookbook provides a useful window into Protestant environmental spirituality, its version of which allowed practitioners to maintain traditional institutional relationships and conceptions of the divine while cultivating the individuated religiosity increasingly sought after in modern culture. Emerging in the institutional overlap of traditional religious organizations and the putatively secular formations of mass media, globalization, and consumer culture, the cookbook leveraged the incipient emphasis on lifestyle choices within consumer culture to craft an individuated response to a vision of the world in permanent crisis.More-with-Lessand the Protestant environmental spirituality it represents shed light on current scholarly debates about the form religion takes within modern contexts of secularity, especially when religious practitioners seek adaptations that can maintain traditional theological and organizational commitments.

Policy entrepreneurship across boundaries: a systematic literature review

AbstractAlthough policy entrepreneurs are assigned an important role in crossing policy boundaries and addressing complex problems, our understanding of the process is limited. This article systematically reviews 51 studies on conditions, strategies and implications of crossboundary entrepreneurship. Findings show that (1) the literature predominantly mentions issue promotion and coalition-building as crossboundary strategies; (2) vertical boundary-crossing is discussed more frequently than horizontal boundary-crossing; (3) the most reported boundary-crossing function is to expand issue arenas; (4) conditions that enable crossboundary strategies include institutional overlap, issue interpretation, power vacuum, overruling policies and lacking resources; and (5) implications of entrepreneurship include raised opposition, increased competition over leadership, augmented complexity hindering collective action, raised costs and resources, and issues regarding trust, legitimacy and authority. Policy entrepreneurship allows for micro-level insights in the emergence of crossboundary processes. We suggest future research to focus on causal processes between conditions, strategies and implications to better understand their interplay.

Managing Security in a Zone of Peace: Brazil´s Soft Approach to Regional Governance

Abstract Given Brazil’s regional prevalence, its low, late and soft investment in regional security governance appears puzzling. We approach the puzzle through an analysis of contextual features, institutional overlap and policy networks, especially regarding nuclear energy and the environment. Our findings show that Brazil’s behavior is explained by a combination of low regional risks, scarce domestic resources, a legalistic regional culture of dispute settlement, and transgovernmental networks that substitute for formal interstate cooperation and deep regional institutions.Keywords: Brazilian foreign policy; Latin American regionalism; Regional Security Governance; Regional Powers; Policy Networks. Received: October 16, 2016Accepted: November 21, 2016 Introduction B razil is the largest Latin American country and represents half of South America, whether regarding area, population, the economy or overall national capabilities. Its rise has led many to expect it to become a regional leader, as both its defensive and offensive foreign interests spill over onto its neighbors (Arnson and Sotero 2009; Bethell 2010; Stuenkel 2013a; Trinkunas 2014). Yet, this expectation has not come to pass (Malamud 2011; Schirm 2010). Neither has Brazil shown the ambition or capacity to impose itself, nor have its neighbors felt the need to balance its power (Gardini and Almeida 2016; Schenoni 2015). Still, regional exchanges have increased substantially over the last three decades. In this article, we focus on the most crucial dimension of these interactions, namely security, in order to understand Brazil’s role in building regional governance.Brazil’s home region has two central peculiarities: first, its boundaries are fuzzy, second, its inner core has been characterized

Irena and iea: Moving Together Towards a Sustainable Energy Future—Competition or Collaboration?

The aim of this article is to critically examine, from a legal perspective, the relationship between the International Energy Agency (iea) and the International Renewable Energy Agency (irena). The iea was established in 1973 in response to the global oil crisis. It currently has 29 member states. Its original mandate has been expanded to include ensuring reliable, affordable, and clean energy. irena was established in 2009. Its main objective is to promote sustainable use of all forms of renewable energy. With 138 member states, and many more in the process of accession, irena is becoming a truly universal organization. Both the iea and irena focus their attention on sustainable energy. Is there an institutional overlap or an unnecessary duplication in scope? Are irena’s activities in sustainable energy, which seemingly parallel those of the iea, justified by its aims and global reach? By addressing these and related questions, the article discusses whether the relationship between the iea and irena can be seen as competition or collaboration. The relationship is analysed within the context of the un Sustainable Energy for All Initiative.