A Cognitive Theory of Institutional Viability

Abstract

A basic and crucial premise of the model of institutional viability that I will present in this chapter is that intergovernmental international institutions, of which the EU’s CFSP is but one example, are composed of sovereign states.² The viability of such international institutions is contingent first and foremost upon their doings and not upon the apparent merits or defects of the institutional design. The primary focus of my theory is, therefore, not on the EU as an institution itself, its formal arrangements, structures or any intrainstitutional dynamics. My focus is rather on states and their leaders as sovereign agents and the implications of their beliefs and subsequent behavior for the institution they belong to.

Institutions are creations of human beings. They evolve and are altered by human beings; hence our theory must begin with the individual.

—Douglass North¹