International Institutions and System Transformation

Starting in the 1990s, scholarship has produced interesting, new, nuanced ideas about the potential role of international institutions in transforming the global political system. Political scientists have achieved a new understanding of how the Westphalian system came into being, and this understanding has provided a rudimentary model of the dynamics of system transformation. The new institutionalism has provided insights into the possible role of institutions. Scholars have developed new understandings of secondary consequences of conducting interactions among nation-states through international institutions. The study of a particular institution, the European Union, has been revitalized and important knowledge has emerged about its dynamics and trajectory. Finally, scholars have begun to raise questions about the properties of a non-Westphalian system, especially about how democratic accountability could be established. This chapter examines each of these developments in turn.