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This book examines how the European Union shapes the creation and change of regional institutions in other parts of the world.
List of contents
- 1. Introduction: Regional Institution Building and Diffusion
- PART I. THEORETICAL FRAMEWORK
- 2. Revisiting Regional Institution Building: Levels of Analysis and the European Union Factor
- 3. Theorizing Interorganizational Influence from the European Union: A Diffusion Framework
- PART II. EMPIRICAL ANALYSIS
- 4. Explaining the European Union's Interorganizational Influence on Other Regional Organizations: A Quantitative Analysis (with Alexandr Burilkov)
- 5. Active European Union Influence: Institutional Change in the Southern African Development Community
- 6. Passive European Union Influence: Institutional Change in Mercosur
- 7. The Scope of European Union Influence: The Role of Contractual Open-Endedness
- PART III. CONCLUSION
- 8. European Union Diffusion and Other Regional Organizations: Conclusions
- Appendixes
- A. The Dependent Variable 'RO Institutionalization'
- B. Summary Statistics
- C. Robustness Checks
About the author
Tobias Lenz is Professor of International Relations, Leuphana University Lüneburg, and leader of a Leibniz Junior Research Group on the legitimation strategies of regional organizations at the German Institute for Global and Area Studies (GIGA). His research focuses on the design and evolution of international organizations, their legitimacy and legitimation, and on the role of the European Union in global regionalism. Previous and forthcoming publications include A Theory of International Organization (with Liesbet Hooghe and Gary Marks, OUP, 2019) and The Rise of International Parliaments: Strategic Legitimation in International Organizations (with Frank Schimmelfennig, Thomas Winzen, Jofre Rocabert, Loriana Crasnic, Cristina Gherasimov, Jana Lipps, and Densua Mumford, OUP, 2020).
Summary
This book examines how the European Union shapes the creation and change of regional institutions in other parts of the world.
Additional text
This is a phantastic book! It demonstrates that the European Union (EU) is indeed the dominant model of institutional diffusion to regional organizations in the rest of the world. However, diffusion does not lead to institutional convergence, but regional organizations across the world exhibit distinct features. National governments are no dummies simply downloading "EU software". They craft and filter EU features through their own preferences and strategies leading to the selective adaption of institutional models. Lenz develops his argument through a carefully designed mix of quantitative analyses complemented by detailed case studies. This book will have a lasting impact on both comparative regionalism and diffusion studies in general.
