Meeting # 1: Institutionalist Theory I.
Questions for Discussion
What are "institutions"? What are "regimes"? How do they differ, if at all? Give examples. How would you "operationalize" or measure the presence or nature of an institution or regime, in conducting empirical tests?
What is Keohane’s argument about international institutions’ effects? What functions do institutions perform? Elaborate each one. Evaluate his theory.
What are the assumptions used by the Keohane chapter and the Axelrod and Keohane article, regarding the strategic structure of international interactions and the nature of the decision-making by states? What do you think of those assumptions? Are they plausible? Explain. What significance do they have for the theory, i.e., might the theory hold up if you modified those assumptions in different ways?
State the hypotheses contained in Keohane, Axelrod and Keohane, and Martin and Simmons as concisely as possible.
How do institutions come about according to these institutionalist arguments? How do they change or evolve? Critique and discuss.
Why are institutions often formalized, according to these readings? Why not have tacit or informal regimes in all cases? What value does formality provide?
How do institutions affect state behavior, according to these theories?
Extrapolate hypotheses from these readings about how different institutional designs might affect state behavior in different ways.