dissertation

Why and how do international organizations (IOs) reform? The Liberal International Order and the constellation of IOs comprising it stand at a critical juncture of reform and evolution. Existing work often treats institutional reform as a uniform and dichotomous outcome, primarily driven by states’ strategic bargaining behavior because of grievances and dissatisfaction with the status quo organization. This obscures the variation in the types, causes, and consequences of reforms. This dissertation project offers a theoretical framework to unmask variation in reforms by highlighting differences in bargaining leverages and institutional constraints facing both state actors and institutional bureaucrats. To test the theoretical framework, the project collects novel data on reforms across institutions and years, resulting in the most comprehensive dataset to date of IO reforms. The quantitative work is supplemented with detailed process tracing demonstrating the theorized mechanisms of institutional reform. This dissertation project provides a novel way to theorize, (re)conceptualize, and measure reforms with implications for the field’s understanding of design and the lifecycle of IOs, and the broader maintenance of the LIO.