Intergovernmental Negotiations: Peer Coordination in Intergovernmental Policy Networks

Abstract

Concession behavior is typically seen in bargaining processes, e.g. in intergovernmental negotiations. In traditional bargaining theory, especially in game-theoretic models, concessions to opponents are interpreted as actions in which the conceding party looses face. In this article, we propose a new approach to bargaining: peer coordination. Rather than loosing face on conceding to opponents, focal governments will increase their reputation among peers when adjusting to the present positions of the peers. Relying on a data set on the EU Intergovernmental Conference of 1996 which led to the Amsterdam treaty, we test and corroborate the hypothesis that a peer coordination model which assumes peer coordination in intergovernmental policy networks makes better predictions for negotiation outcomes than a random model which we interpret as a kind of null model.