Supranationalism in Motion: Regional Organizations in Time

Using an original data set on institutional design in 32 regional international organizations on an annual basis from 1950 to 2010, this paper investigates the causal dynamics of supranationalism and its constituent elements. We detail how the authority of regional IOs in Asia, Africa, Europe, and North America has developed over time, paying detailed attention to the extent to which authority is pooled in majoritarian decision making procedures and the extent to which it is delegated to non-state actors and general secretariats. Building on functional, normative, power, and diffusion theories, we provide a general explanation of the decisional authority of regional IOs across time and space in structural equation and pooled time series analyses.