INTLORG A51 June 20, 2016

Review Essay # 5

Dominating the discussion of the fifth section of the readings on theories and approaches to IOs
looks at the level of accountability of international organizations to their member states, efficiency
in the constitution of goals, as well as the generation of policies in order to adapt to the challenges
they encounter. Master or Servant? Common Agency and the Political Economy of IMF Lending
by Mark S. Copelovitch (2010) specifically examines the International Monetary Fund; an
organization with lending policies that are allegedly influenced by member-states possessing the
most power in the international scene such as the United States in several instances. The author
argues that there are numerous motivations which determine the disparity in IMF conditionality.
This article provides several data sets to statistically analyze the stated framework (common
agency). The assumptions of being a master or servant are both rejected as the variables under
observation are individually considered thus clarifying dynamics of policymaking, cooperation
and institutional design.

The article Delegation to International Organizations: Agency Theory and World Bank
Environmental Reform by Daniel L. Nielson and Michael J. Tierney (2003) similarly analyzes the
lending behavior of another dominant international organization: The World Bank. The authors
are able to analytically provide information of the World Banks resistance to reform and the
process of consequently restructuring its organizational framework. In doing so, the article
supplies the assumptions with statistical data showing empirical patterns in environmental lending.
Existing models are also applied as modes of comparison in the analysis of the authors insights
in order to arrive at a principle that best describe or bolster the presumptions in relation to the
available quantitative data.

Michael N. Barnett and Martha Finnemore (1999) in their article The Politics, Power, and
Pathologies of International Organizations argue that IOs are rational actors which exercise power
independent from the states which created them. With this approach, the authors suggest that
international organizations have evolved from their standardized purpose of promoting the
member states interests and now act as rule generating entities as well as a institutions with
categorizing ability not only of states, but of people. Through this article, we are able to look into
the IOs exercise of power and its various effects in international politics. The analysis of economic
and socio-political matters surrounding the subject matter is also given attention as these factors
also play vital roles in strengthening the legitimacy and efficiency (in terms of maximizing utility)
of IOs. Morover, realist and liberal views are less considered as the authors argue that IOs have
separate agendas from states which is not an assumption they support in this article.

The article entitled The Evolutionary Design of International Institutions by Lora Viola and
Duncan Snidal (2007) uses an approach that depicts the interrelation of design and evolution of
international institutions. Evidently, the authors aim to provide a more complex theoretical
understanding by exposing the readers to various aspects of international institutional
development. By looking at real world examples such as the internal logics of the World Health
Organization, this paper was able to probe for significant elements affecting the development or
changes which occur within international institutions; capturing the implications of the stated
factors and captures how they are constituted in the global political landscape.

The following literature is necessary in the construction of more informed assumptions on

international institutions primarily because they delve into both theory and approach. This provides
the readers several analytical perspectives which can be useful in the overall identification of
variables in the study of international organizations. Moreover, the use of dominant international
organizations aids in the enhancement of the ability to recognize vital factors which control or
influence actors in the global arena; a necessary skill beyond the study of IOs