Illiberal regimes have become central players in international organizations. In this introduction to the special issue, we provide a unified framework for understanding their effects. We start by outlining the theoretical foundations of this work, focusing first on why regime type matters for international cooperation. We then show how differing memberships and decision-making processes within international organizations affect the influence illiberal regimes can wield, the activities they undertake, and the impact that they have on domestic political outcomes. Collectively and individually, the contributions to this special issue broaden the theoretical literature on illiberal regimes in international organizations and produce novel data about how they are implicated in the politics and operations of multilateral and regional IOs. This research has important implications for how democracies can and should cope with the challenges to global governance that arise from illiberal regimes.

非自由政权已成为国际组织的核心参与者。在本期特刊的介绍中，我们提供了一个统一的框架来理解它们的影响。我们首先概述这项工作的理论基础，首先关注为什么政权类型对国际合作很重要。然后，我们将展示国际组织内不同的成员资格和决策过程如何影响非自由政权可以施加的影响力、它们所开展的活动以及它们对国内政治结果的影响。无论是集体还是个人，对本期特刊的贡献都拓宽了有关国际组织非自由政权的理论文献，并提供了关于它们如何参与多边和区域国际组织的政治和运作的新颖数据。这项研究对于民主国家能够并且应该如何应对非自由政权对全球治理的挑战具有重要意义。