A Study On The Expansion Of Weakly Binding Institutions

There are two directions for the development of international institutions:deepening cooperation and expanding scale.Compared with deepening cooperation to directly improve the internal quality and further promote the development of the institution,the expansion of its scale,especially the increase of membership,if not based on strong constraint and coordination,will affect the function of the institution and threaten its future development.It has become an indisputable fact that strong institutions,such as the European Union encountered difficulties in the internal coordination and integration due to the expansion of membership.In contrast,the expansion of international institutions with weak binding force is more likely to cause problems such as lax functions and inefficient governance.Therefore,the weak institution should be inclined to deepen cooperation and expand membership cautiously.However,according to the empirical observation of the expansion practice of the Shanghai Cooperation Organization(SCO),it is found that although there is an urgent demand for quality improvement,the organization still has completed the expansion of membership and continued to operate.This choice logic anomaly is the core problem of this paper.Why does the weak binding institution choose to expand its membership?How does it deal with the functional inefficiency after the expansion?To solve this problem,in terms of theoretical basis,the research on institutional change constitutes the macro theoretical background of the research;in terms of experience accumulation,the relevant data and literature of Shanghai Cooperation Organization provide the basis for case test of this paper.It is easy to find that guided by functionalism and rational choice,a large number of theoretical studies focusing on the expansion of strong institutions don't provide an effective explanation for the expansion of weak binding institutions.For a series of empirical research on weak institution expansion represented by the Shanghai Cooperation Organization,there are some problems,such as lack of further theoretical refinement and integration,lack of theoretical basis and so on.Therefore,this paper uses the analytical eclecticism method,on the premise that the institution is inclusive and in the context of coordinated institutional interaction,focusing on the multiple connotations of international institutional functions,puts forward three basic hypotheses: power balance,normative diffusion and functional compensation.And they will be verified in three specific stages of SCO expansion: shelving(2001-2007),legal preparation(2008-2014)and final implementation(2015-2017).As far as the case of SCO is concerned,the judgment of its weak binding characteristics is based on both its objective structural reasons and a series of subjective rules.At the same time,as an interregional cooperation dominated by developing countries and emerging economies,the Shanghai Cooperation Organization has the basic characteristics of inclusiveness and openness.Because of the mutual compatibility of the interests of big countries and the needs of small countries,many similar institutions in the same space maintain a basically coordinated interactive relationship.Based on this premise,through a longitudinal(diachronic)comparison of the specific situation of the three stages of SCO expansion,it is found that: First,from the perspective of Russia,due to the rising threat perception of western countries such as the United States and Europe,and the pressure of China's increasing strength and economic influence in Central Asia,Russia's demand for power balance has continued to increase.Therefore,Russia has always been committed to actively promoting the expansion of the SCO's membership in order to play the role of the institution as a soft balance tool better.Secondly,in the context of the reform of global governance system,with the maturity of SCO system,the growth of member states' strength and the improvement of their willingness to participate in global governance,the core norm of“Shanghai spirit” has an increasing demand for diffusion,which has pushed up the hope of member states to enhance the representativeness and influence of the institution by expanding the membership of SCO.Thirdly,the docking of “One Belt and One Union”in 2015 and the establishment of the position of the “docking platform” of SCO have helped the SCO break through the original functional bottleneck,made up for the weakening of functions caused by the expansion of membership to a certain extent,and responded to the concerns of member states about the low efficiency.Based on the systematic theoretical hypothesis and empirical argumentation,the following conclusions can be drawn: the increase of member states' demand for power balance and normative diffusion enhance the possibility of the membership expansion,but it is not enough to promote its realization;the emergence of functional compensation is the decisive factor for the final decision-making of SCO expansion.Based on the above conclusions,this paper reflects on the weakening of the current international system,analyzes and summarizes a series of development experiences and policy suggestions that can be used for reference by the weak binding international institution represented by Shanghai Cooperation Organization: in the era of antiglobalization and the general weakening of international institutions,whether the future development of the existing weak binding institution or the institutional supply by developing countries and emerging economies,in both cases we should pay attention to the construction of internal functions as well as the maintenance of inter institutional relations,avoid the unnecessary consumption caused by fragmentation,and pursue the compensation or even borrowing of inter-institutional functions in the coordinated interaction.2021 coincides with the 20 th anniversary of the establishment of the Shanghai Cooperation Organization.In this paper,we are not only limited to focus on the completed membership expansion practice,but also make a positive evaluation and prospect of the emerging development impetus of the SCO obtained from the institutional coordination in the new stage according to the basis of expansion-decision.