Ambiguity and Uncertainty in International Organizations
A History of Debating IMF Conditionality1
Bibliographic Data
| ID | 6274355 |
|---|---|
| Authors | Jacqueline Best (0000-0001-5235-2057, University of Ottawa, corresponding author) |
| Year | 2012 |
| Volume | 56 |
| Issue | 4 |
| Pages | 674-688 |
| Publication date | 2012-12-01 |
| Peer Reviewed | Yes |
| Open Access | Yes |
| Type | ARTICLE |
| Venue | International Studies Quarterly (JOURNAL) |
| Journal identifiers | ISSN: 0020-8833 • E-ISSN: 1468-2478 |
| Publisher | Oxford University Press (OUP) (PUBLISHER) |
| DOI | 10.1111/j.1468-2478.2012.00744.x |
| OpenAlex | W1868845932 |
| Language | EN |
| Citations received | 47 |
| References cited | 44 |
How do international organizations deal with the persistent challenge of uncertainty? The most intuitive answer is through regulation. Yet, rules are not always the best solution in times of uncertainty or in dealing with complex and diverse problems. More ambiguous policies that leave room for interpretation, can often be more functional for an international organization (IO); moreover, ambiguities can also be a source of power—and are therefore often a subject of conflict among institutional actors. Focusing on the case of International Monetary Fund conditionality policy, this article provides several key insights into IO practices. It provides an account of the different forms that ambiguity can take in international organizations and develops an explanation for why institutional ambiguities appear and persist. Looking inside the IO black box, the study examines how interests, institutional culture, and legitimacy concerns shape actors’ support for ambiguity, and how these preferences combine with broader structural factors to produce a predisposition toward institutional ambiguity. Finally, this article points toward certain implications of organizations’ tendency toward ambiguity, suggesting that this may play an important role in enabling institutional expansion
Ambiguity · Conditionality · Discretion · Economics · Interpretation (philosophy · Legitimacy · Political science · Politics · Positive economics · Power (physics · Sociology · Computer Science · Global Financial Regulation and Crises · International Arbitration and Investment Law · International Development and Aid · Law
Contesting Sovereignty
Governing Failure - Provisional Expertise and the Transformation of Global Development Finance
Artificial intelligence as a site of global educational governance
L'ajustement humanisé
Artificial Intelligence and the ethics of navigating ambiguity
Walking the Walk, Not Talking the Talk
Escalated Policy Space Conflict
The Social Structures of Interventions
Mobilising private adaptation finance
What is adaptation to climate change? Epistemic ambiguity in the climate finance system
What “Brussels” means by structural reforms
The Cold War Origins of Global IR. The Rockefeller Foundation and Realism in Latin America
Knowing (in) organizations
Policy Implementation by International Organizations
The Institutional Roots of Incremental Ideational Change
Inclusion of IMF in Eurozone Crisis Management
The European rescue of the Washington Consensus? EU and IMF lending to Central and Eastern European countries
Whither the post-Washington Consensus? International financial institutions and development policy before and after the crisis
From ambiguity to contestation
Balancing effectiveness with geo-economic interests in multilateral development banks
A matter of information – The influence of international bureaucracies in global climate governance networks
Categorization in international organizations
Governing through ambiguity in the normalizing society
The Cold War Origins of Global IR. The Rockefeller Foundation and Realist Theory in Latin America
Expertise at the intersection of technicality and ambiguity
What is race? Epistemic ambiguity and liberal international order
The need to be seen to be taking action
Frame contestation and collective securitisation
Policy paradigms, gender equality and translation
Disruptive technology and regulatory conundrums
Just Theater!”—How Self-Legitimation Practices Can Backfire in International Organizations
Dialectical Order-Making through Ambiguity
Playing Different Games
Back to Basics
Compromise in multilateral negotiations and the global regulation of artificial intelligence
The end of global pluralism
Theorizing the role of executive heads in international organizations
Global climate adaptation governance
A discursive institutionalist approach to American foreign policy – principled and cognitive interpretations of Bosnia
Globalisation before the crash
The benefits of norm ambiguity
Economics as intervention
Dossiê
Subjects of Quantum Measurement
The Making of Neoliberal Globalization
The six faces of ignorance in online piracy
Bureaucratic ambiguity
Silent Revolution
Markets and Hierarchies : analysis and antitrust implications
Delegation and Agency in International Organizations
Hypocrisy Trap
Delegation under anarchy
Economy and Society
The logic of delegation
Rules for the World
The Limits of Transparency
An Engine, Not a Camera
After Hegemony
Institutions, Institutional Change and Economic Performance
Power in Global Governance
Great Transformations
Economy and Society
Bridging the rationalist–constructivist divide
Recruiting and diversifying IMF technocrats
Our Poverty Is a World Full of Dreams
Economic Growth, Poverty Reduction, and the Role of Social Policies
Producing Neoliberal Hegemony? a Neo-Gramscian Analysis of the Poverty Reduction Strategy Paper (Prsp) in Nicaragua
The Power of Inscription
On being grandmotherly
The Promise of Institutionalist Theory
The Nature of the Firm
Delegation, agency, and agenda setting in the European Community
Designing Police
Powering, Puzzling, or Persuading? The Mechanisms of Building Institutional Orders
The Concept of Legalization
Hard and Soft Law in International Governance
The Rational Design of International Institutions
Legitimacy and Authority in International Politics
Peacekeeping
Governance to Governmentality
The Politics, Power, and Pathologies of International Organizations
Political power beyond the State
Encountering Development
Ambiguity, Uncertainty, and Risk
What is sociological about economic sociology? Uncertainty and the embeddedness of economic action
| Unique citing works | 47 |
|---|---|
| Citations per year | 3,36 |
| Citation span | 2012 - 2026 (15) |
| Citation velocity | current |
| Highly cited | No |
| Citation types | Neutral: 46 |