Scholars@Duke
Judith Kelley

Judith Kelley CV

ITT/Terry Sanford Distinguished Professor of Public Policy
Sanford School of Public Policy
judith.kelley@duke.edu
Box 90245, Durham, NC 27708-0245
240A Sanford Bldg, Box 90245, Durham, NC 27708
CV

Selected Publications

The Competitive Pressures of Rankings: Experimental Evidence of Rankings’ Influence on Domestic Priorities

Chapter · February 8, 2024 The use of indicators in global governance has the potential to alter the forms, the exercise, and perhaps even the distributions of power in certain spheres of governance ... Cite

Testing for Negative Spillovers: Is Promoting Human Rights Really Part of the Problem?

Journal Article International Organization · December 1, 2021 The international community often seeks to promote political reforms in recalcitrant states. Recently, some scholars have argued that, rather than helping, international law and advocacy create new problems because they have negative spillovers that increa ... Full text Cite

Governance by other Means: Rankings as regulatory systems

Journal Article International Theory · March 1, 2021 This article takes the challenges of global governance and legitimacy seriously and looks at new ways in which international organizations (IOs) have attempted to ‘govern’ without explicit legal or regulatory directives. Specifically, we explore the growth ... Full text Cite

The Power of Ranking: The Ease of Doing Business Indicator and Global Regulatory Behavior

Chapter · January 1, 2020 The World Bank has successfully marshaled the Ease of Doing Business (EDB) Index to amass considerable influence over business regulations worldwide. This success is notable given that the Bank has no explicit mandate over regulatory policy and that questi ... Full text Cite

Global Performance Indicators: Themes, Findings, and an Agenda for Future Research

Chapter · January 1, 2020 Globalization, accountability, and technology are changing important aspects of global governance. While coercion, enforcement, and material sanctions have often taken pride of place as major movers of interstate relations, scholars and policy agents alike ... Full text Cite

Introduction: The Power of Global Performance Indicators

Chapter · January 1, 2020 In recent decades, intergovernmental organizations (IGOs), non-governmental organizations (NGOs), private firms, and even states have begun to regularly package and distribute information on the relative performance of states. From the World Bank’s Ease of ... Full text Cite

The elusive sources of legitimacy beliefs: Civil society views of international election observers

Journal Article Review of International Organizations · December 1, 2019 When do members of civil society view international election observers as legitimate? Motivated by recent work on the legitimacy of international organizations, we evaluate what type of information affects non-governmental organizations’ (NGOs) beliefs abo ... Full text Cite

Introduction: The Power of Global Performance Indicators

Journal Article International Organization · June 1, 2019 In recent decades, IGOs, NGOs, private firms and even states have begun to regularly package and distribute information on the relative performance of states. From the World Bank's Ease of Doing Business Index to the Financial Action Task Force blacklist, ... Full text Cite

The Power of Ranking: The Ease of Doing Business Indicator and Global Regulatory Behavior

Journal Article International Organization · June 1, 2019 We argue that the World Bank has successfully marshaled the Ease of Doing Business (EDB) Index to amass considerable influence over business regulations worldwide. The Ease of Doing is a global performance indicator (GPI), and GPIs-especially those that ra ... Full text Cite

Scorecard Diplomacy Grading States to Influence their Reputation and Behavior

Book · May 9, 2017 What can the international community do when countries would rather ignore a thorny problem? Scorecard Diplomacy shows that, despite lacking traditional force, public grades are potent symbols that can evoke countries’ concerns about their reputations and ... Open Access Link to item Cite

International Actors on the Domestic Scene: Membership Conditionality and Socialization by International Institutions

Journal Article · January 1, 2017 International relations scholars increasingly debate when and how international institutions influence domestic policy. This examination of ethnic politics in four Baltic and East European countries during the 1990s shows how European institutions shaped d ... Full text Cite

Country Perspectives

Chapter · 2017 Cite

When Does It Work?

Chapter · 2017 Cite

An Opportunity Cost Theory of US Treaty Behavior

Journal Article International Studies Quarterly · September 1, 2015 The United States often leads in the creation of treaties, but it sometimes never joins those treaties or does so only after considerable delay. This presents an interesting puzzle. Most international relations theory expects states to join treaties as lon ... Full text Open Access Cite

International influences on elections in new multiparty states

Journal Article Annual Review of Political Science · June 15, 2012 Practitioners and politicians have long debated the wisdom of pushing countries to hold elections, with some arguing for its necessity and others warning of its futility and even danger. Yet, research on how varying types of international activities affect ... Full text Open Access Cite

Monitoring Democracy: When International Election Monitoring Works and Why It Often Fails

Book · 2012 Featured Publication What is novel about this book--and what stands as Judith Kelley's singular achievement--is her comprehensive and systematic collection of evidence. ... Cite

Do international election monitors increase or decrease opposition boycotts?

Journal Article Comparative Political Studies · November 1, 2011 Election boycotts are over twice as common when international observers are present. Do international observers increase election boycotts as this correlation and past research suggest? This article argues not. Observers tend to go to elections with many p ... Full text Open Access Cite

Election observers and their biases

Journal Article Journal of Democracy · 2010 Why do election monitors sometimes issue contradictory statements or endorse flawed elections? The answers are not always straightforward; in some cases, the monitors' good intentions may undermine their credibility. © 2010 National Endowment for Democracy ... Full text Open Access Cite

D-Minus elections: The politics and norms of international election observation

Journal Article International Organization · October 1, 2009 As international election monitors have grown active worldwide, their announcements have gained influence. Sometimes, however, they endorse highly flawed elections. Because their leverage rests largely on their credibility, this is puzzling. Understanding ... Full text Cite

The more the merrier? the effects of having multiple international election monitoring organizations

Journal Article Perspectives on Politics · March 1, 2009 As the pressure to invite international election monitors rose at the end of the Cold War, states refused to grant the United Nations a dominant role. Thus, today multiple intergovernmental, regional, and international non-governmental organizations often ... Full text Cite

Foreword

Journal Article · 2009 Cite

Assessing the complex evolution of norms: The rise of international election monitoring

Journal Article International Organization · April 1, 2008 Given that states have long considered elections a purely domestic matter, the dramatic growth of international election monitoring in the 1990s was remarkable. Why did states allow international organizations and nongovernmental organizations (NGOs) to in ... Full text Cite

The Concept of International Delegation

Journal Article Law & Contemporary Problems · 2008 Link to item Cite

Who keeps international commitments and why? The international criminal court and bilateral nonsurrender agreements

Journal Article American Political Science Review · August 1, 2007 What do countries do when they have committed to a treaty, but then find that commitment challenged? After the creation of the International Criminal Court, the United States tried to get countries, regardless of whether they were parties to the Court or n ... Full text Cite

New Wine in Old Wineskins: Policy Learning and Adaption in The new European Neighborhood Policy

Journal Article Journal of Common Market Studies · 2006 The EU’s newly launched European Neighborhood Policy is a fascinating case study in organizational management theory of how the Commission strategically adapted enlargement policies to expand its foreign policy domain. From the use of Action Plans, ... Link to item Cite

Strategic non-cooperation as soft balancing: Why Iraq was not just about Iraq

Journal Article International Politics · June 1, 2005 Many commentators explain recent transatlantic rifts by pointing to diverging norms, interests and geopolitical preferences. This paper proceeds from the premise that not all situations of conflict are necessarily due to underlying deadlocked preferences. ... Full text Open Access Cite

International actors on the domestic scene: Membership conditionally and socialization by international institutions

Journal Article International Organization · June 1, 2004 International relations scholars increasingly debate when and how international institutions influence domestic policy. This examination of ethnic politics in four Baltic and East European countries during the 1990s shows how European institutions shaped d ... Full text Cite

Ethnic Politics in Europe: The Power of Norms and Incentives

Book · 2004 This book's simultaneous assessment of soft diplomacy and stricter conditionality advances a long overdue dialogue between proponents rational choice models and social constructivists. ... Cite

Does domestic politics limit the influence of external actors on ethnic politics?

Journal Article Human Rights Review · 2003 Conclusion: Domestic politics is naturally important in ethnic policies. However, in spite of their potency, domestic political factors are not always the most decisive. International organizations have influenced the Latvian and Estonian governments, and ... Full text Cite