The Consequences of Bureaucratic Autonomy for International Administrative Influence

普遍的共识是，国际公共行政对国际组织政策的通过和实施具有独立的影响。虽然在国家政治制度中经常研究组织结构对决策的影响，但直到最近才在民族国家以上的层面提出此类研究问题。在研究IPAs对IOs的影响时，学者们已经确定了几个可能与影响发生相关的功能因素、权力相关因素和结构因素。然而，还没有出现一种更综合的方法，可以在一个共同的分析框架下系统地分析几个解释因素。鉴于这一研究差距，本项目建立在对项目第一阶段获得的结构性官僚自治维度差异的见解基础上，以评估IPAs是否、在何种条件下以及如何利用其结构性自治来影响国际组织的决策产出。为此，该项目将分三步进行。首先，我们旨在评估IPAs是否会影响国际组织的具体政策产出。因此，我们收集了关于四个国际组织的32个政策产出案例（既有实质性的，也有体制性质的）的信息，以便评估各国际机构在每个政策案例中所发挥的影响。IPA的影响程度是项目要解释的中心现象。其次，将通过定性比较分析（QCA）确定结构自治导致IPA影响的条件。这将使我们能够评估自主IPAs是否特别有影响力，并帮助我们确定调解这种关系的（功能和权力相关的）背景条件。第三，我们使用这一分析的结果来选择那些案例进行深入分析，这些案例特别有助于确定导致IPA影响发生的因果机制（所谓的典型案例和偏差案例）。在这最后一步中，该项目将使用过程追踪来审查IPA成功影响背后的因果机制。为了研究这些机制，我们将重点放在IPAs可用的政策相关行动的行政工具包上，并确定成功的行政影响战略。总而言之，预计该项目将大大提高我们对国际行政特征对国际组织决策过程的影响的认识。除了研究结果与本文所述的特定政策案例的相关性之外，该项目还进一步证实了新兴的国际间组织行政治理观点的轮廓，特别是可以提出一个关于国际间组织影响的更一致的理论。

There is general consensus that international public administrations (IPAs) wield independent influence on the adoption and application of the policies of international organizations (IOs). While the impact of organizational structures on policy-making is regularly studied in national political systems, such research questions have only recently been posed at the level above the nation state. When studying the influence of IPAs in IOs, scholars have identified several functional, power-related, and structural factors that might be relevant for influence to occur. However, a more integrative approach that allows for the systematic analysis of several explanatory factors under a common analytical framework has not emerged. In view of this research gap, this project builds on the insights concerning differences in the dimensions of structural bureaucratic autonomy gained during the first phase of the project in order to evaluate whether, under which conditions, and how IPAs are able to use their structural autonomy to influence the output of IOs´ policy-making. To this end, the project will proceed in three steps. First, we aim to assess whether IPAs can influence specific policy outputs of IOs. We thus collect information on 32 cases of policy output (of both a substantive and an institutional nature) in four IOs in order to assess the influence exercised by the respective IPA in each policy case. The degree of IPA influence is the central phenomenon to be explained by the project. Second, the conditions under which structural autonomy leads to IPA influence will be identified by means of Qualitative Comparative Analysis (QCA). This will allow us to assess if autonomous IPAs are particularly influential and help us to identify the (functional and power-related) context conditions that mediate this relationship. Third, we use the results of this analysis to select those cases for in-depth analysis that are particularly informative for identifying the causal mechanisms leading to the occurrence of IPA influence (so-called typical cases and deviant cases). In this last step, the project will use process tracing to examine the causal mechanisms behind successful IPA influence. In order to study these mechanisms, we focus on the administrative toolkit for policy-related action available to IPAs and identify strategies of successful administrative influence. In sum, the project can be expected to substantially advance our knowledge about the impact of international administrative features on policy-making processes in IOs. Beyond the relevance of the results for the particular policy cases covered here, the project further substantiates the contours of an emerging administrative governance perspective on IOs and may, in particular, advance a more consistent theory of the influence of IPAs.