Institutional Design of Global Governance: Power and Autonomy of the Heads of International Governmental Organizations
This paper presents the first results of ESADEgeo's research project on global governance, focusing on the institutional aspects of the heads of International Governmental Organizations (IGOs). The paper contributes to the debate on the heads' autonomy by proposing measures of power and potential for autonomy of the organizations' leading figure. By considering IGOs as networks, the paper also contributes to the debate about the institutionalization of networks and its association with its head autonomy and capacity.
Data comes from a new dataset about the institutional characteristics of the IGOs. Item-response theory and mixed factor analysis is used to generate scores of latent power and potential for autonomy. The scores are contrasted against a set of different explanatory variables derived from political and administrative approaches.