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Replication Data for: Credible Commitments? Explaining IGO Suspensions to Sanction Political Backsliding

Harvard Dataverse (Africa Rice Center, Bioversity International, CCAFS, CIAT, IFPRI, IRRI and WorldFish)

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Title Replication Data for: Credible Commitments? Explaining IGO Suspensions to Sanction Political Backsliding
 
Identifier https://doi.org/10.7910/DVN/XNKPP6
 
Creator Inken von Borzyskowski
Felicity Vabulas
 
Publisher Harvard Dataverse
 
Description Why do intergovernmental organizations (IGOs) that espouse democratic commitments suspend the membership of some states that backslide on those commitments, while leaving that of others intact? We argue that a combination of geopolitical factors and institutional rules help explain this inconsistent pattern. Remaining member states insulate geopolitically important states—particularly those with large endowments of oil resources—from suspension. Institutional factors, such as voting rules and the size of the IGO, create veto points that reduce suspensions. Using an original global data set of IGO suspensions and charter commitments from 1980 to 2010, we find strong support for our argument. We test a key assumption of existing scholarship that claims IGOs serve as credible-commitment devices for political reform and democratization. We show that once a state becomes an IGO member, it can often remain in the IGO even after violating its democratic commitments.
 
Subject Social Sciences
IGOs, democratization
 
Contributor Prins, Brandon