Article contents
International organization and the theory of property rights
Published online by Cambridge University Press: 22 May 2009
Extract
A specter haunts the world's bureaucrats: the specter of small government. Skepticism about the expanding role of government in most industrial nations has encouraged political economists to go back to some fundamental questions about what we really need government to do for us, whether it be for reasons of efficiency or equity. The aim of this paper is to suggest that some of the theories attacking “big” government are equally applicable in the realm of international organization (IO).
- Type
- Articles
- Information
- Copyright
- Copyright © The IO Foundation 1980
References
I would like to thank Robert Keohane and five anonymous reviewers for helpful advice leading to the revision of this paper.
1 See, for example, Claude, I. L., Swords into Ploughshares: the Problems and Prospects of International Organization, 3rd ed. (London: University of London Press, 1964)Google Scholar.
2 Keohane, R. O. and Nye, J. S., eds., Transnational Relations and World Politics (Cambridge, Mass.: Harvard University Press, 1972), p. xi, passimCrossRefGoogle Scholar.
3 Brown, S. and Fabian, L. L., “Toward Mutual Accountability in Nonterrestrial Realms,” International Organization 29 (1975): 877–92CrossRefGoogle Scholar.
4 The forms of market failure are described by Bator, F. M., “The Anatomy of Market Failure,” Quarterly Journal of Economics 72 (1978): 351–79CrossRefGoogle Scholar.
5 See Pigou, A. C., The Economics of Welfare (London: Macmillan, 1920)Google Scholar. An up-to-date ex-position of the definitional limits to the concept of exernalities may be found in Mishan, E. J., Elements of Cost-Benefit Analysis, 2nd. ed. (London: Allen and Unwin, 1976), pp. 85–90Google Scholar. The theory of the second best was first stated rigorously by Lipsey, R. G. and Lancaster, K., “The General Theory of the Second Best,” Review of Economic Studies 24 (1956): 11–32CrossRefGoogle Scholar. Pareto irrelevant externalities are described in Buchanan, J. M. and Stubblebine, W. C., “Externality,” Economica 19 (1962): 371–84CrossRefGoogle Scholar.
6 Coase, R. H., “The Problem of Social Cost,” Journal of Law and Economics 3 (1960): 1–44CrossRefGoogle Scholar; Buchanan, J. M., “The Coase Theorem and the Theory of the State,” Natural Resource Journal 13 (1973): 579–94Google Scholar; Furobotn, E. G. and Pejovich, S., “Property Rights and Economic Theory,” Journal of Economic Literature 10 (1972): 1137–62Google Scholar; Goldberg, V. P., “Public Choice–Property Rights,” Journal of Economic Issues 8 (1974): 555–79CrossRefGoogle Scholar; V. Ostrom, “Public Choice Theory: A New Approach to Institutional Economics,” American Journal of Agricultural Economics. Demsetz's, Among H. many contributions to the field are “The Property Rights Paradigm,” Journal of Economic History 33 (1973): 16–27Google Scholar; “Some Aspects of Property Rights,” Journal of Law and Economics 9 (1966): 61–70CrossRefGoogle Scholar; and “Toward a Theory of Property Rights,” American Economic Review 57 (1967): 347–59Google Scholar.
7 Coase, pp. 10–14, 20–26.
8 Demsetz, , “Toward a Theory of Property Rights,” pp. 351–53Google Scholar.
9 Buchanan, J. M., “Politics, Policy and Pigovian Margins,” Economica 29 (1962): 17–28CrossRefGoogle Scholar; “The Coase Theorem,” pp. 585–9.
10 Calabressi, G. and Melamed, A. D., “Property Rules, Liability Rules, and Inalienability: One View of the Cathedral,” Harvard Law Review 85 (1972): 1089–129CrossRefGoogle Scholar.
11 See Teclaff, L. A. and Utton, A. E., eds., International Environmental Law (New York: Praeger, 1974)Google Scholar; Nowak, J., ed., Environmental Law: International and Comparative Aspects (Dobbs Ferry, N.Y.: Oceana, 1976)Google Scholar; OECD, ed., Problems in Transfrontier Pollution (Paris: OECD, 1974)Google Scholar.
12 Goldie, L. F. E., “Liability for Damage and Progressive Development of International Law,” International and Comparative Law Quarterly 14 (1965): 1189–264CrossRefGoogle Scholar.
13 Quoted in Utton, A. E., “International Water Quality Law,” in Teclaff, and Utton, , p. 155Google Scholar.
14 Arbitral Tribunal decision quoted in Samuels, J. W., “International Control of Weather Modification Activities: Peril or Policy,” in Teclaff, and Utton, , p. 232Google Scholar.
15 See Kiechel, W., “The Admiralty Case of the Century,” Fortune 99 (1979): 79–88Google Scholar.
16 Convention reprinted in O. O. Ogunbanwo, International Law and Outer Space Activities (The Hague: Martinus Nijhoff, 1975). More complete surveys of international tort agreements may be found in Brownlie, I., “A Survey of International Customary Rules of Environmental Protection,” in Teclaff, and Utton, , pp. 1–11Google Scholar; Brown, E. D., “The Conventional Law of the Environment,” in Teclaff, and Utton, , pp. 25–56Google Scholar; and Bramsen, C. B., “Transnational Pollution and International Law,” in OECD, pp. 257–84Google Scholar.
17 Hardin, G., “The Tragedy of the Commons,” Science 162 (1968): 1243–8Google ScholarPubMed.
18 The IO approach is exemplified in Weiss, E. B., “International Response to Weather Modification,” International Organization 29 (1975): 805–26CrossRefGoogle Scholar. Proposals more consistent with PR theory are outlined in Samuels, pp. 204–8.
19 Mishan, E. J., “Pangloss on Pollution,” Swedish Journal of Economics 73 (1971): 115–6CrossRefGoogle Scholar.
20 Demsetz, H., “Wealth Distribution and the Ownership of Property Rights,” Journal of Legal Studies 1 (1972): 223–32CrossRefGoogle Scholar.
21 Furniss, N., “The Political Implication of the Public Choice–Property Rights School,” American Political Science Review 72 (1978): 401–7 passimCrossRefGoogle Scholar.
22 See Pirages, D., The New Context for International Relations: Global Ecopolitics (North Scituate, Mass.: Duxbury, 1978), pp. 63–5Google Scholar.
23 Keohane, R. O. and Nye, J. S., Power and Interdependence: World Politics in Transition (Boston: Little, Brown, 1977), pp. 30–2Google Scholar.
24 Vote trading theory is summarized in Frohlich, N. and Oppenheimer, J. A., Modern Political Economy (Englewood Cliffs, N.J.: Prentice-Hall, 1978), pp. 127–38Google Scholar.
25 Demsetz, , “Wealth Distribution,” pp. 231–2Google Scholar.
26 Oye, K. A., “On Blackmail and Backscratching,” paper presented to the International Studies Association (West), Angeles, Los, 21 04 1977Google Scholar. (typewritten.) The summary of English law is that of Williams, G. L., “Blackmail,” Criminal Law Review (1954), p. 172Google Scholar; and the Model Penal Code reference to extortion may be found in Section 223.4(g), 1954.
27 Daly, G. and Giertz, J. F., “Externalities, Extortion and Efficiency,” American Economic Review 65 (1975): 999–1000Google Scholar.
28 D' Amato, A. A., “Legal Aspects of the French Nuclear Tests,” American Journal of International Law 61 (1961): 67Google Scholar.
29 Brierly, J. L., The Law of Nations, 6th ed. (Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1972), pp. 245–51Google Scholar.
30 Hoffmann, S., Gulliver's Troubles, or the Setting of American Foreign Policy (New York: McGraw Hill, 1968), pp. 21–30Google Scholar.
31 Knorr, K., Power and Wealth: The Political Economy of International Power (New York: Basic Books, 1973), p. 195CrossRefGoogle Scholar.
32 Brierly, pp. 271–6.
33 Friedman, D., “A Theory of the Size and Shape of Nations,” Journal of Political Economy 85 (1977): 59–77CrossRefGoogle Scholar.
34 Calabressi and Melamed, pp. 1123–27.
35 See, for example, Wellisz, S., “On External Diseconomies and the Government Assisted In-visible Hand,” Economica 31 (1964): 553–4CrossRefGoogle Scholar.
36 Olson, M., The Logic of Collective Action (Cambridge, Mass.: Harvard University Press, 1965), pp. 9–16Google Scholar. The following argument assumes that the concept of the public good is relevant to interstate behavior. This assumption has recently been questioned on the grounds that the state's preference for collective goods is not necessarily related to aggregate national welfare, and that Pareto optimality may be an inappropriate optimality criterion where there is distributional in-justice. See Oppenheimer, J., “Collective Goods and Alliances,” Journal of Conflict Resolution 23 (1979): 387–407CrossRefGoogle Scholar.
37 For example, Russett, B. M. and Sullivan, J. D., “Collective Goods and International Organization,” International Organization 25 (1971): 849CrossRefGoogle Scholar.
38 Olson, p. 36; Chamberlin, J., “Provision of Collective Goods as a Function of Group Size,” American Political Science Review 68 (1974): 707–16CrossRefGoogle Scholar. The limit value of expenditure on the public good is stated mathematically in McGuire, M., “Group Size, Group Homogeneity and the Aggregate Provision of a Pure Public Good under Cournot Behavior,” Public Choice 18 (1974): 112CrossRefGoogle Scholar.
39 McMillan, J., “The Free-Rider Problem: A Survey,” Economic Record 55 (1979): 102–4CrossRefGoogle Scholar.
40 Guttman, J. M., “Understanding Collective Action: Matching Behavior,” American Economic Review 68 (1978): 251–5Google Scholar.
41 A survey of the evidence is provided in Nemeth, C., “A Critical Analysis of Research Utilizing the Prisoners' Dilemma Paradigm for the Study of Bargaining,” Advances in Experimental Social Psychology, volume 6, Berkowitz, L., ed. (New York: Academic Press, 1972), pp. 203–34Google Scholar.
42 Hardin, R., “Collective Action as an Agreeable n-Prisoners' Dilemma,” Behavioral Science 16 (1971): 479CrossRefGoogle Scholar.
43 Stigler, G., “Free Riders and Collective Action: An Appendix to Theories of Economic Regulation,” Bell Journal of Economics and Management Science 5 (1974): 362CrossRefGoogle Scholar.
44 Coase, R. H., “The Lighthouse in Economics,” Journal of Law and Economics 17 (1974): 357–76CrossRefGoogle Scholar.
45 Ruggie, J. G., “Collective Goods and Future International Collaboration,” International Organization 66 (1972): 890, 891Google Scholar.
46 Olson, M., “Increasing the Incentives for International Collaboration,” International Organization 25 (1971): 871–4CrossRefGoogle Scholar.
47 R. A. and Musgrave, P. B., Public Finance in Theory and Practice (New York: McGraw Hill, 1973), pp. 596–607Google Scholar.
48 A point raised by Sandier, T. and Cauley, J., “The Design of Supranational Structures,” Inter-national Studies Quarterly 21 (1977): 260–5Google Scholar.
49 Wolfe, C., “A Theory of Nonmarket Failure: Framework for Implementation Analysis,” Journal of Law and Economics 22 (1979): 107–39CrossRefGoogle Scholar.
50 Niskanen, W. A., Bureaucracy and Representative Government (Chicago: Aldine, 1971)Google Scholar.
51 Buchanan, “Politics.”
52 Nozick, R., Anarchy, State and Utopia (New York: Basic, 1974)Google Scholar.
- 26
- Cited by