When institutions can hurt you: Transparency, domestic politics, and international cooperation

Much of the literature on international institutions argues that increased transparency will promote cooperation among states, and that a primary function of institutions is to create it. Even approaches that look specifically at the interactions of domestic and international politics often argue that transparency promotes cooperation. There are, however, circumstances in which increased transparency at the international level can interact with domestic politics in such a way as to actively undermine cooperation, even when cooperation is in the interest of the electorate. The mechanism for this effect is political posturing, using the terms of the existing international institution as a focal point. The argument is illustrated by two brief case studies, one of an international financial institution and the other of an international environmental institution. In both cases, cooperation would have been more likely had the relevant formal institutions not been created.