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Why do institutions emerge, operate, evolve and persist? Institutional Choice and Global Commerce elaborates a theory of boundedly rational institutional choice that explains when states USE available institutions, SELECT among alternative forums, CHANGE existing rules, or CREATE new arrangements (USCC). The authors reveal the striking staying power of the institutional status quo and test their innovative theory against evidence on institutional choice in global commerce from the nineteenth through the twenty-first centuries. Cases range from the establishment in 1876 of the first truly international system of commercial dispute resolution, the Mixed Courts of Egypt, to the founding and operation of the General Agreement on Tariffs and Trade, the World Trade Organization, and the International Accounting Standards Board. Analysts of institutional choice henceforth must take seriously not only the distinct demands of specific cooperation dilemmas, but also the wide array of available institutional choices.
List of contents
Part I: 1. Introduction: institutional choice and global commerce; 2. International institutional choice: cooperation, alternatives, and strategies; 3. Building Theseus' ship: why the ITO failed, the GATT succeeded, and the WTO emerged; Part II: 4. Creating the first international court of commercial dispute resolution: the Mixed Courts of Egypt; 5. Commercial complexity and institutional choice in the GATT era; 6. Institutional choice in global accounting governance; Part III: 7. Conclusion: overview and institutional theories compared.
About the author
Joseph Jupille is Associate Professor of Political Science at the University of Colorado, Boulder.Walter Mattli is Professor of International Political Economy in the Department of Politics and International Relations, Oxford University and a Fellow of St John's College, Oxford.Duncan Snidal is Professor of International Relations in the Department of Politics and International Relations, Oxford University and a Fellow of Nuffield College, Oxford.
Summary
Why do institutions emerge, change, persist and die? This book addresses one of the central issues in the social sciences and beyond. Offering a new theoretical approach with illustrations from global commerce, it will appeal to students and scholars of international relations, politics, sociology, economics, law and public policy.
Report
'Jupille, Mattli, and Snidal have written a pathbreaking book on the politics of institutional choice relating to global commerce. Developing a novel approach grounded in bounded rationality, the authors demonstrate why the process of institutional change is often piece-meal, disjointed, and inefficient judged by standards of global efficiency.' James Caporaso, Director of the European Union Center for Excellence, University of Washington, Seattle
