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Constraining Coercion? Legitimacy and Its Role in U.S. Trade Policy, 1975–2000

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  20 January 2010

Krzysztof J. Pelc
Krzysztof J. Pelc
Affiliation:
Princeton University, and the Department of Political Science atMcGill University, in Montreal, Canada. E-mail: [email protected]
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Abstract

The role of legitimacy in international relations is a topic of much debate, yet there is little understanding of the mechanism behind it. Here I address this discrepancy by asking: are state threats perceived as (il)legitimate more or less likely to be successful? By operationalizing illegitimacy as unilateral action in the presence of a multilateral option, I consider the variation in the success of U.S. trade measures from 1975 to 2000. As I show, the (il)legitimacy of threats modifies the nature of the signal sent by concessions to those threats, and this effect can be measured and predicted. I find that, controlling for material pressure, perceived illegitimacy of U.S. trade threats decreases the likelihood of a target conceding by over 34 percent. Moreover, it pays to resist: targets that resist illegitimate unilateral measures from the United States are 25 percent less likely to encounter similar unilateral measures over the following five years.

Type
Research Article
Information
International Organization , Volume 64 , Issue 1 , January 2010 , pp. 65 - 96
Copyright
Copyright © The IO Foundation 2010

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