Research Seminar Series - Anja Jetschke

Professor of International Relations, University of Göttingen

Comparative regionalism has been an expanding field of research in recent years. While the literature on regional organizations (ROs) has included diffusion in its research agenda, current data gathering efforts do not sufficiently reflect the conceptual and methodological consequences of this approach. The Comparative Regional Organizations Project (CROP) addresses this gap by coding founding and amending treaties, while focusing not only on the institutional design of regional organizations but also on their norms and treaty structure, with the final aim of detecting institutional similarities. Conceptually, we broaden the concept of ROs. We consider state-like characteristics as only one dimension of institutional design and include constitutional and structural-linguistic dimensions of treaties. Methodologically, and driven by our interest in diffusion, we take a more inductive approach to treaty design, which allows us to detect characteristics of ROs neglected by other deductively oriented approaches. Empirically, we present the findings of a factor analysis of the constitutional documents of more than 70 ROs. The paper presents CROP’s analytical and methodological approach, and demonstrates its added value relative to other data gathering projects. It shows both temporal and spatial variation along three distinct axes of institutional design found in our treaty database: norms, competences, and organs. We show that this variation points to the existence of discrete institutional models whose popularity waxes and wanes across time and space.

Tuesday 6 March 2018
11:00 - 12:30 
UNU-CRIS, Bruges

Registration is required! 

Please register here, before Sunday 4 March 23:59 CET.