Description
Most issue areas in world politics today are governed by “hybrid institutional complexes” (HICs) composed of heterogeneous interstate, infra-state, public-private and private institutions. This paper focuses on how HICs enable governance responses to crises, such as the global financial crisis of 2007-2008 and the ongoing Covid-19 pandemic, which many observers see as outstripping the capacity of multilateral institutions. We posit that the institutional diversity of HICs produces strong functional differentiation and informal hierarchy among their component institutions. Those structural features give HICs systematic advantages in crisis response: substantive fit for multi-faceted and rapidly evolving issues; political fit for the participation and preferences of diverse actors; and adaptability, flexibility and rapid response capacity for the uncertainty and urgency of crisis situations. Empirically, the paper scrutinizes the role of HICs in responding to the global financial crisis and the Covid-19 public health crisis. Both situations have been addressed through diverse institutional forms, including formal interstate organizations (such as the WHO), informal intergovernmental organizations (such as the G20), transgovernmental networks (such as the Financial Stability Board), and multi-stakeholder institutions (such as GAVI). Our analysis demonstrates that HICs with different institutional mixes are needed to respond to the varied characteristics of specific challenges.
