TY - JOUR A1 - Heinzel, Mirko Noa A1 - Richter, Jonas A1 - Busch, Per-Olof A1 - Feil, Hauke A1 - Herold, Jana A1 - Liese, Andrea T1 - Birds of a feather? BT - the determinants of impartiality perceptions of the IMF and the World Bank JF - Review of international political economy N2 - The International Monetary Fund and the World Bank ascribe to impartiality in their mandates. At the same time, scholarship indicates that their decisions are disproportionately influenced by powerful member states. Impartiality is seen as crucial in determining International Organizations' (IOs) effectiveness and legitimacy in the literature. However, we know little about whether key interlocutors in national governments perceive the International Financial Institutions as biased actors who do the bidding for powerful member states or as impartial executors of policy. In order to better understand these perceptions, we surveyed high-level civil servants who are chiefly responsible for four policy areas from more than 100 countries. We found substantial variations in impartiality perceptions. What explains these variations? By developing an argument of selective awareness, we extend rationalist and ideational perspectives on IO impartiality to explain domestic perceptions. Using novel survey data, we test whether staffing underrepresentation, voting underrepresentation, alignment to the major shareholders and overlapping economic policy paradigms are associated with impartiality perceptions. We find substantial evidence that shared economic policy paradigms influence impartiality perceptions. The findings imply that by diversifying their ideational culture, IOs can increase the likelihood that domestic stakeholders view them as impartial. KW - Impartiality KW - bias KW - International Financial Institutions KW - International KW - Monetary Fund KW - World Bank Y1 - 2020 U6 - https://doi.org/10.1080/09692290.2020.1749711 SN - 0969-2290 SN - 1466-4526 VL - 28 IS - 5 SP - 1249 EP - 1273 PB - Routledge, Taylor & Francis Group CY - Abingdon ER - TY - JOUR A1 - Liese, Andrea A1 - Herold, Jana A1 - Feil, Hauke A1 - Busch, Per-Olof T1 - The heart of bureaucratic power BT - Explaining international bureaucracies’ expert authority JF - Review of international studies : RIS N2 - Expert authority is regarded as the heart of international bureaucracies' power. To measure whether international bureaucracies' expert authority is indeed recognised and deferred to, we draw on novel data from a survey of a key audience: officials in the policy units of national ministries in 121 countries. Respondents were asked to what extent they recognised the expert authority of nine international bureaucracies in various thematic areas of agricultural and financial policy. The results show wide variance. To explain this variation, we test well-established assumptions on the sources of de facto expert authority. Specifically, we look at ministry officials' perceptions of these sources and, thus, focus on a less-studied aspect of the authority relationship. We examine the role of international bureaucracies' perceived impartiality, objectivity, global impact, and the role of knowledge asymmetries. Contrary to common assumptions, we find that de facto expert authority does not rest on impartiality perceptions, and that perceived objectivity plays the smallest role of all factors considered. We find some indications that knowledge asymmetries are associated with more expert authority. Still, and robust to various alternative specifications, the perception that international bureaucracies are effectively addressing global challenges is the most important factor. KW - Expert Authority KW - International Bureaucracies KW - International KW - Organisations KW - Neutrality KW - Performance KW - Survey Y1 - 2021 U6 - https://doi.org/10.1017/S026021052100005X SN - 0260-2105 SN - 1469-9044 VL - 47 IS - 3 SP - 353 EP - 376 PB - Cambridge Univ. Press CY - Cambridge ER - TY - JOUR A1 - Hecke, Steven van A1 - Fuhr, Harald A1 - Wolfs, Wouter T1 - The politics of crisis management by regional and international organizations in fighting against a global pandemic BT - the member states at a crossroads JF - International review of administrative sciences : an international journal of comparative public administration N2 - Despite new challenges like climate change and digitalization, global and regional organizations recently went through turbulent times due to a lack of support from several of their member states. Next to this crisis of multilateralism, the COVID-19 pandemic now seems to question the added value of international organizations for addressing global governance issues more specifically. This article analyses this double challenge that several organizations are facing and compares their ways of managing the crisis by looking at their institutional and political context, their governance structure, and their behaviour during the pandemic until June 2020. More specifically, it will explain the different and fragmented responses of the World Health Organization, the European Union and the International Monetary Fund/World Bank. With the aim of understanding the old and new problems that these international organizations are trying to solve, this article argues that the level of autonomy vis-a-vis the member states is crucial for understanding the politics of crisis management.
Points for practitioners
As intergovernmental bodies, international organizations require authorization by their member states. Since they also need funding for their operations, different degrees of autonomy also matter for reacting to emerging challenges, such as the COVID-19 pandemic. The potential for international organizations is limited, though through proactive and bold initiatives, they can seize the opportunity of the crisis and partly overcome institutional and political constraints. KW - autonomy KW - COVID-19 KW - crisis management KW - European Union KW - International KW - Monetary Fund KW - international organizations KW - multilateralism KW - World Bank KW - World Health Organization Y1 - 2021 U6 - https://doi.org/10.1177/0020852320984516 SN - 0020-8523 SN - 1461-7226 VL - 87 IS - 3 SP - 672 EP - 690 PB - Sage CY - Los Angeles, Calif. [u.a.] ER -