New democracies and multilateral agreements: Exploring the effects of regime legitimacy on international behavior

Theories of democratic consolidation are the underpinnings for a distinct category of new democracies among regime types, while with work on multilateralism revealing that new democracies behave systematically differently than other regime types. However, those same theories of consolidation would lead us to expect systematic difference among new democracies based on the level of regime stability a new democratic state faces. This project develops a theory for how regime stability in new democracies leads these states to engage with multilateralism in systematic ways; when a new democratic regime is relatively less stable, political elites will turn to multilateralism in the form of treaty ratification to gain perceived reputational benefits on the international stage. In doing so, they thereby expect to increase the likelihood of the new democratic election cycle occurring. I develop a novel index of regime stability in new democracies and apply it to the analysis ratification behavior by 52 new democracies, finding evidence that elites in relatively less stable new democracies ratify treaties on social issues faster than those in more stable new democracies. In addition, I present qualitative evidence that political elites in new democracies believe treaty ratification can boost their international reputation, revealing valuable evidence for a widely argued theory of multilateralism and reputation.

Name thesis:degree_name

Ph.D.

Level thesis:degree_level

Dissertation

Discipline thesis:degree_discipline

Political Science

Grantor

University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign

Year dc:date

2023

Author dc:creator

• Leffingwell, Sarah Katherine

Contributors dc:contributor

• Dai, Xinyuan
• Pahre, Bob
• Winters, Matt
• Webb Williams, Nora

• New Democracies
• Multilateralism
• Legitimacy

Statement dc:rights

• Copyright 2023 Sarah Leffingwell

Language dc:language

en, eng

Handle dc:identifier

https://hdl.handle.net/2142/120274

OAI record oai:identifier

https://www.ideals.illinois.edu/oai-pmh?verb=GetRecord&metadataPrefix=etdms&identifier=oai%3Awww.ideals.illinois.edu%3A2142%2F120274