Conventional understandings of U.S. foreign policy see Congress as an obstacle to multilateral cooperation. Kathryn Lavelle challenges the traditional view by considering Congress within the three branches of American government, as well as within networks of global politics. Using the notion of “Congressional advocacy” to refer to the process wherein American legislators use the institutional mechanisms of Congress to influence public policy and resource allocation decisions in international organizations, Legislating International Organization shows how members of Congress attach policy pres ... More

Conventional understandings of U.S. foreign policy see Congress as an obstacle to multilateral cooperation. Kathryn Lavelle challenges the traditional view by considering Congress within the three branches of American government, as well as within networks of global politics. Using the notion of “Congressional advocacy” to refer to the process wherein American legislators use the institutional mechanisms of Congress to influence public policy and resource allocation decisions in international organizations, Legislating International Organization shows how members of Congress attach policy prescriptions to legislation to build support for measures related to the IMF and World Bank. It demonstrates that despite delays and unwelcome demands, Congress has always provided requisite funding. Each chapter asks how this result has been possible in the face of considerable apathy and opposition? Based on direct experience, observations, interviews, and extensive archival research, the book argues that in each historical stage, exogenous changes in the international political economy combined with endogenous procedural change in the legislature to create and erode constituencies for the work of the IMF and World Bank. As a result of the Cold War, financial crises, and related developments in international lending, the efforts of members of Congress and interest groups have gradually intermingled with that of transnational groups. The relationship between Congress and the IMF and World Bank is particularly important today where the collapse of the traditional constituencies in the wake of the 2008 financial crisis poses a serious challenge to the future of multilateralism in American politics.