How regional norms shape regional organizations: The Pan-African rhetorical trap and the empowerment of the ECOWAS Parliament

Abstract

Prevailing constructivist scholarship argues that the evolution of regional organizations is due to the influence of global norms such as liberal democracy. Alternative rational choice theories suggest there might be efficiency gains that explain the evolution of international organizations. However, these explanations struggle to account for some paradoxical institutional outcomes, for example, the empowerment of inefficient regional parliaments by non-democratic states—an outcome that also threatens state sovereignty. To address such paradoxes, this paper highlights the importance of regionally bound norms in shaping the development of regional organizations. It argues that regional norms can create normative traps that make states converge on a particular institutional outcome. Using the empirical case of the empowerment of the Parliament of the Economic Community of West African States, which was granted budgetary oversight and mandatory referral powers in 2016, this paper conceives of African international actors as locked in a Pan-African rhetorical trap. The Pan-African rhetorical trap describes a normative environment in which certain outcomes become irresistible for a variety of actors because they accord unambiguously with the norms of the African community. The findings have important implications for the study of international organizations more broadly, scholarship on African international relations, and scholarship on global governance.

African regionalism, economic nationalism and the contested politics of social purpose: the East African Community and the ‘new developmentalism’

“…Developing a constructivist analytic framework, this article instead highlights how under certain discursive contexts African actors can converge and commit to the aims of regional integration. As with other recent publications (Mumford 2021), therefore, this article emphasises the role of discursive subjectivities in shaping the trajectory of African regionalism. Second, utilising the EAC's integration experience, this article contributes further to the theorisation of regional integration.…”

“…In a study of the European Union (EU), for instance, Rosamond (2002) has shown how EU policy actors’ discursive appeals to external economic threats helped construct the idea of a European economy as a ‘self-evident’ economic space. More recently, Mumford (2021) has emphasised how discursive appeals to Pan-African norms served as a strategic device for proponents wanting to empower the regional parliament of the Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS).…”

Norm contestation and the weakening of migrant fisher protection in Thailand

“…However, despite the government’s serious efforts, such norms have been weakened upon domestic translation. This phenomenon is not readily explained by existing norms approaches in IR, such as in the rhetorical trap perspective (Mumford 2021; Schimmelfennig 2001), de-coupling approach (Hafner-Burton and Tsutsui 2005; Jetschke and Rüland 2009), spiral model (Risse and Ropp 2013), localization (Acharya 2010) and norm implementation (Betts and Orchard 2014). As discussed further below, these perspectives are inadequate for capturing the weakening of migrant fisher protection in Thailand, and therefore warrant greater scrutiny of international norms upon entering a domestic space.…”

“…The weakening of domestic norm implementation despite rigorous promotion by state actors cannot easily be explained by existing norms approaches. The norm socialization account in the early constructivist research would expect actors to simply follow norms upon adoption because states either think it is the right thing to do (Finnemore and Sikkink 1998) or are trapped in the rhetorical action in referencing norms (Mumford 2021; Schimmelfennig 2001). According to these accounts, states would be reluctant to diverge from norms due to the risk of being criticized and delegitimized by the international community.…”

Exploring Africa's Agency in International Politics

“…The agency of Africa in this partnership has been conspicuous and has contributed empirical contestations to the narrative of the continent's place of marginality and victimhood. While, for example, the EU's funding of operations with the AU gives the EU leverage, the AU and subregional institutions such as ECOWAS have demonstrated their capacity to become first responders to crisis management needs (Haastrup, 2013;Mumford, 2021). Additionally, in these institutional arrangements, the set objectives and agendas are mostly driven by Africans themselves (Piccolino and Minou, 2014;Pirozzi and Litsegård, 2017, p. 19).…”