The global governance of international development: documenting the rise of multi-stakeholder partnerships and identifying underlying theoretical explanations

Reinsberg, B. and Westerwinter, O. (2021) The global governance of international development: documenting the rise of multi-stakeholder partnerships and identifying underlying theoretical explanations. Review of International Organizations, 16(1), pp. 59-94. (doi: 10.1007/s11558-019-09362-0)

Abstract

The global governance of development increasingly relies on multi-stakeholder partnerships between states, intergovernmental organizations, and non-governmental organizations. This article takes on two tasks. The first is to describe quantitatively the institutional evolution of the multilateral development system over the past century. The second is to juxtapose four rational-institutionalist explanations for why states establish new organizations as transnational governance initiatives—functionalism, power-oriented theories, domestic politics, and contextual design. The empirical analysis probes these explanations using the new Transnational Public-Private Governance Initiatives in World Politics dataset, which combines several existing data sources to build the most comprehensive data on different forms of institutionalized cooperation in global governance. The results lend most support to the contextual design view, while also yielding support for other accounts. By employing Heckman selection models, the analysis addresses potential selection bias due to unobserved correlation between state choices to create a new organization and its design. A qualitative case study further validates measurement choices and causal mechanisms. These findings have implications for theories of institutional design and development practice, specifically regarding the role of intergovernmental organizations in an increasingly interconnected world.

• Item Type: Articles
• Additional Information: Funding from the Swiss Network for International Studies (SNIS) is gratefully acknowledged.
• Status: Published
• Refereed: Yes
• Glasgow Author(s) Enlighten ID: Reinsberg, Dr Bernhard
• Authors: Reinsberg, B., and Westerwinter, O.
• College/School: College of Social Sciences > School of Social and Political Sciences > Politics
• Journal Name: Review of International Organizations
• Publisher: Springer
• ISSN: 1559-7431
• ISSN (Online): 1559-744X
• Published Online: 18 July 2019
• Copyright Holders: Copyright © 2019 Springer Science+Business Media, LLC, part of Springer Nature
• First Published: First published in Review of International Organizations 16(1): 59-94
• Publisher Policy: Reproduced in accordance with the copyright policy of the publisher