A combinatorial theory of institutional invention

IF 2.2 1区社会学 Q1 INTERNATIONAL RELATIONS

International Theory Pub Date : 2023-05-09 DOI:10.1017/s1752971923000064

Guillaume Beaumier, Marielle Papin, J. Morin

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引用次数: 2

Abstract

From climate change to disruptive technologies, policymakers constantly face new problems calling for unprecedented institutional solutions. Yet, we still poorly understand the inventive process leading to the emergence of new institutional forms. Existing theories argue that exogenous changes provide incentives and opportunities for institutional invention. However, they fail to explain how the inventive process endogenously structures their emergence. Drawing from complexity theory and Brian Arthur's work on technological inventions, we develop a structural theory recasting the process of inventing new institutions as the combination of pre-existing institutions. Building on three assumptions related to this combinatorial process, we argue that the distance between institutions shapes the emergence of new institutional forms and their regime's trajectory. Following the initial take-off in the number of institutional inventions at the creation of a regime, we expect the rate of institutional inventions over replications will slow down as nearby institutions are combined and accelerate as distant ones are combined. We illustrate these expectations by looking at three regimes: data privacy, climate governance, and investment protection. Together, they showcase how our combinatorial theory can help make sense of the emergence of unprecedented institutions and, more generally, the pace of unfolding complexity in various international regimes.

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制度发明的组合理论

从气候变化到颠覆性技术，政策制定者不断面临新问题，需要前所未有的制度解决方案。然而，我们仍然不太了解导致新制度形式出现的创造性过程。现有理论认为，外生变化为制度发明提供了激励和机会。然而，它们未能解释发明过程是如何内源性地组织它们的出现的。从复杂性理论和布莱恩·亚瑟关于技术发明的工作中，我们发展了一种结构理论，将发明新制度的过程重新定义为既存制度的组合。基于与这一组合过程相关的三个假设，我们认为制度之间的距离塑造了新制度形式的出现及其政权轨迹。随着制度建立时制度发明数量的最初腾飞，我们预计，随着附近制度的合并，制度发明超过复制的速度将放缓，而随着遥远制度的合并，制度发明超过复制的速度将加快。我们通过查看三种制度来说明这些期望:数据隐私、气候治理和投资保护。总之，它们展示了我们的组合理论如何帮助理解前所未有的机构的出现，以及更普遍地说，如何帮助理解各种国际制度中复杂性的发展速度。

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来源期刊

International Theory Multiple-

CiteScore

6.60

自引率

0.00%

发文量

期刊介绍： Editorial board International Theory (IT) is a peer reviewed journal which promotes theoretical scholarship about the positive, legal, and normative aspects of world politics respectively. IT is open to theory of absolutely all varieties and from all disciplines, provided it addresses problems of politics, broadly defined and pertains to the international. IT welcomes scholarship that uses evidence from the real world to advance theoretical arguments. However, IT is intended as a forum where scholars can develop theoretical arguments in depth without an expectation of extensive empirical analysis. IT’s over-arching goal is to promote communication and engagement across theoretical and disciplinary traditions. IT puts a premium on contributors’ ability to reach as broad an audience as possible, both in the questions they engage and in their accessibility to other approaches. This might be done by addressing problems that can only be understood by combining multiple disciplinary discourses, like institutional design, or practical ethics; or by addressing phenomena that have broad ramifications, like civilizing processes in world politics, or the evolution of environmental norms. IT is also open to work that remains within one scholarly tradition, although in that case authors must make clear the horizon of their arguments in relation to other theoretical approaches.