A transnational social movement (TSM) which aims at institutionalizing a normative international policy can successfully affect the process of making a multilateral agreement which embodies certain international norm through the mechanism of domestic-international dynamic interplay.
TSMs promote an international agreement making by building and keeping international political momentum. The momentum induces opportunistic states to bandwagon the norm entrepreneurs including the TSM's policy even in the absence of domestic pressure, hence an international norm cascade. It also gives an impetus to states which have opposed the policy to change their policy in favor of the TSM if in so doing they think it will enhance their international reputation.
The vulnerability of a state's reputation is determined by both the degree of its perceived need for international image as a good neighbor and the domestic vulnerability of national decision-makers. If the state opposing the policy feels its international reputation is at stake, the international norm cascade will put both domestic and international pressure on the state to change its policy.
Strong momentum thus boosts the TSM's leverage against governments whose reputations are vulnerable by encouraging decision-makers to compromise with the TSM, and by increasing the political legitimacy of the movement itself. This increasing legitimacy gives an incentive to domestic political actors to stand on the side of the TSM, which in turn further strengthens its political leverage. Once the opposing state revises its policy in favor of the TSM's policy, the international momentum will become even greater.
Thus, on the one hand, increased international momentum not only improves the international political opportunity structure for the TSM, but also affects the size of the domestic winning coalition and of the political resources available to it. On the other hand, the momentum will be significantly strengthened if a powerful state which has opposed the policy changes its position in response to domestic and international pressures. This demonstrates the interplay between domestic and international politics in the process of multilateral agreement making.
抄録全体を表示