"A Comparative Institutional Analysis of International Organizations and Their Environmental Policy Making"

Zito, Anthony R. (1995) "A Comparative Institutional Analysis of International Organizations and Their Environmental Policy Making". In European Union Studies Association (EUSA) > Biennial Conference > 1995 (4th), May 11-14, 1995, pages 17, Charleston, South Carolina.

Abstract

Robert Putnam's "two level game" approach has had a particular impact on recent international relations theory. Putnam's article presents a provocative and persuasive understanding of the relationship between the international behavior of states and the domestic institutional and political situation. This renewed focus on the domestic political impact is an extremely praiseworthy development, which complements rather than contradicts the orientation found in this paper. This paper contends that international relations should make a parallel effort to "bring back" institutional analysis of how the formal structures of international organizations shape and constrain state behavior. In order to advance this institutional perspective, the analysis of international organization structure is combined with the insights of the "new institutional" approach and while a tradition studying formal international organizations structures does exist, little of it has made explicit comparison about how different organizations' structures influence international behavior. This paper makes a comparison between the European Union, a very special kind of regional organization, and three more traditional intemational organizations: (I) the United Nations Economic Commission for Europe (UNECE), (2) the United Nations Environment Program (UNEP), and (3) the Organization for the Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD). The paper examines how these three intemational organizations and one regional organization have tackled environmental policy issues, a policy interest which all four organizations have in common. The fundamental argument is that the European Union represents a very different breed of political organization from the traditionally defined "international organizations."