Democratic differences: Electoral institutions and compliance with GATT/WTO agreements

International Institutions and Compliance with Agreements

The ultimate litmus test of compliance theories occurs in situations where states’ interests are directly opposed, such as competing interstate claims over territory, maritime areas, and cross-border rivers. This article considers the extent to which the involvement of international institutions in the settlement of contentious issues between states bolsters compliance with agreements that are ...

Compliance with International Agreements

The study of compliance with international agreements has gained momentum over the past few years. Since the conclusion of World War II, this research agenda had been marginalized by the predominance of realist approaches to the study of international relations. However, alternative perspectives have developed that suggest that international law and institutions are important influences on the ...

Electoral Institutions and Satisfaction With Democracy

Looking for Audience Costs in all the Wrong Places: Electoral Institutions, Media Access, and Democratic Constraint

For leaders to generate credibility through audience costs, there must be mechanisms in place that enable citizens to learn about foreign policy failures. However, scholars have paid relatively little attention to variations among democracies in the extent to which the public is able to obtain this sort of information. We argue here that electoral institutions play this role by influencing the ...

Democratic Principle and Electoral College Reform