Bound by History: How Antecedents Shaped the League of Nations Institutional Design.
The founding of the League of Nations marked a turning point in international governance. It entrenched great-power privilege by creating a bifurcated structure that separated an exclusive Council from a representative Assembly. Despite its significance, the origins of this institutional choice rema...
| Publicado en: | International Studies Quarterly Vol. 70; no. 1; pp. 1 - 14 |
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| Autores principales: | , |
| Formato: | Artículo |
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Oxford University Press / USA
Mar2026
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| Acceso en línea: | Ver este registro en EBSCOhost |
| fields | @attributes: recordID: 1 pdfLink: plink: https://search.ebscohost.com/login.aspx?direct=true&db=ssf&AN=192384927&site=ehost-live header: @attributes: shortDbName: ssf uiTerm: 192384927 longDbName: Social Sciences Full Text (H.W. Wilson) uiTag: AN controlInfo: bkinfo: jinfo: jid: 00208833 ISQ jtl: International Studies Quarterly issn: 00208833 maglogo: N pubinfo: dt: Mar2026 vid: 70 iid: 1 pid: 622 pub: Oxford University Press / USA artinfo: ui: 192384927 10.1093/isq/sqag011 ppf: 1 ppct: 13 formats: tig: atl: Bound by History: How Antecedents Shaped the League of Nations Institutional Design. aug: au: Schulz, Carsten-Andreas Long, Tom affil: University of Cambridge, UK University of Warwick, UK su: United States League of Nations Sovereignty Power (Social sciences) International organization Institutional environment sug: subj: Sovereignty Power (Social sciences) United States League of Nations International organization Institutional environment keyword: copyrightHolder:International Studies Association copyrightYear:2026 historical institutionalism inLanguage:en institutional choice negative antecedents publisher:Oxford University Press sameAs:https://dx.doi.org/10.1093/isq/sqag011 copyrightHolder:International Studies Association copyrightYear:2026 historical institutionalism inLanguage:en institutional choice negative antecedents publisher:Oxford University Press sameAs:https://dx.doi.org/10.1093/isq/sqag011 ab: The founding of the League of Nations marked a turning point in international governance. It entrenched great-power privilege by creating a bifurcated structure that separated an exclusive Council from a representative Assembly. Despite its significance, the origins of this institutional choice remain poorly understood. This article argues that the dual Assembly-Council design emerged through a process whereby policymakers, bound by historical experience, vetted and adapted alternative proposals in light of what we call "negative antecedents." In particular, the separation of universal membership from great-power control reflected efforts to manage the legacy of pre-1914 demands for sovereign equality. Drawing on secondary literature and original archival research, the article shows how U.S. and British policymakers invoked the Second Hague Conference to resist pressure from smaller and often racialized states, especially those in Latin America, to participate on equal terms in international organizations. The League's designers responded more directly to inherited political conflicts than to abstract, forward-looking considerations of institutional functionality. Since the League's creation, trade-offs among membership, efficacy, and control have continued to shape debates over intergovernmental organizations. By engaging historical institutionalist scholarship in IR, this article offers new insights into how past conflicts constrain and channel contingent institutional choices. pubtype: Academic Journal doctype: Article src: R language: English refInfo: copyright: @attributes: flag: N holdings: @attributes: islocal: N |
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