The enlargement of international organizations

Abstract

Scholars tend to study international organizations as selective clubs. Theorizing organizations as clubs, however, obscures an important aspect of their evolution that is connected to the goods they produce. Some organizations produce goods that are increasingly attractive and accessible to non-members. Those organizations face pressures to enlarge beyond the optimal size suggested by club theory, changing the experience of membership fundamentally. Over time, lower exclusivity, increased rivalry, and tighter governance structures shift the organization from producing club-goods to managing common resource pools. The case of the European Union illustrates this transformation. By theorizing the EU as a collection of common resources pools rather than a club, this study underscores how the EU accompanied the pressure for greater inclusiveness and competition for resources with reforms to strengthen member states’ self-discipline and multilateral surveillance. Such institutional reforms were and remain necessary for any international organization to avoid the tragedy of the commons.