"A Plea for Subsidiarity or Chaos? Explaining Conservative Opposition to Global Governance"
Overview: This piece explores opposition to global governance with a special focus on U.S. conservatives. I use a survey experiment to test the proposition that there are two ways to expand U.S. domestic support for global governance efforts: (1) by tacking left and pursuing a more progressive vision in which international organizations regulate more domestic behavior, or (2) by removing culturally-salient issues from global governance and focusing narrowly on technical collective action problems.
Left-wing opposition to global governance makes clear demands for progressive policies in areas like labor, the environment, and human rights. One option to build more support for international organizations is to lean into more progressive global governance on these issues.
Right-wing opposition to global governance is often framed as principled rejection of all international cooperation, suggesting that conservatives "can't be brought along." I test that argument, hypothesizing that right-wing opposition movements seek to insulate culturally-salient aspects of domestic political life from the reach of international institutions while supporting technical cooperation.
The results of this survey experiment will suggest where U.S. leaders have an opportunity to expand public support for international governance and which regulatory issues are likely to provoke opposition.
Left-wing opposition to global governance makes clear demands for progressive policies in areas like labor, the environment, and human rights. One option to build more support for international organizations is to lean into more progressive global governance on these issues.
Right-wing opposition to global governance is often framed as principled rejection of all international cooperation, suggesting that conservatives "can't be brought along." I test that argument, hypothesizing that right-wing opposition movements seek to insulate culturally-salient aspects of domestic political life from the reach of international institutions while supporting technical cooperation.
The results of this survey experiment will suggest where U.S. leaders have an opportunity to expand public support for international governance and which regulatory issues are likely to provoke opposition.
