Research question/goal:

Follow-Up Project for Production and Diffusion of Ideas in International Negotiation (PRODI).

The major research question is how far argumentative action is significant for the institutionalization of international negotiation systems and under which institutional circumstances arguing is likely to be successful. As dimensions of institutionalization, the stabilization of interaction and the establishment of certain focal ideas ("Leitideen") are postulated. In addition, the interpretation of established focal ideas and the assertion of and compliance with norms resulting from negotiation processes is important. As one empirical example the emergence and role of the focal idea of "Good Governance" in EU-internal development policy coordination and in the dialogue within the Lomé-cooperation with the ACP (African, Caribbean, and Pacific) countries was investigated. A second example is the International Labor Organization (ILO). In several of its activities, focal ideas behind ILO in- and output will be delineated as well as actors which produce and communicate these ideas, or the channels and processes of communication, which open the ILO for divergent focal ideas or interpretations. It will be analysed how far the ILO-mechanisms of interpretation, assertion and monitoring and their actual use contribute to the stability of established focal ideas and institutionalized norms. In competition with rational choice approaches in the Research Group "Institutionalization of International Negotiation Systems" it will be tested to what extent differences in the focal ideas and the relevant negotiation processes account for the variation in ratification of ILO-conventions.