The governance turn in political research has led to increased attention to informal institutions. For scholars of international relations this has contributed to recent scholarship that reveals a notable growth in the number of informal intergovernmental organizations (IIGOs). Many aspects of IIGOs remain unknown, including whether they involve transnational actors (TNAs). Yet, whether IIGOs are open to TNAs or not may affect their performance and legitimacy. Given the importance of TNA access to IIGOs, this article explores IIGOs openness to TNAs. We illustrate that IIGOs vary whether they are open or not and that arrangements for TNA access differ. Theoretically, we build on existing literature to posit that the political costs of involvement, TNA resources, and the institutional environment affect whether IIGO are open or closed to TNAs. Empirically, we present new data on TNA access to 94 IIGOs and examine the variation in IIGO openness to explore the validity of our theoretical expectations. We find that no single account can be offered to understand access across IIGOs, and our explanatory factors show variegated effects across different subgroups of the sample. Our findings have implications for debates on the rise of informal global governance and the openness of global governance.

中文翻译：

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世界政治中的非正式治理和跨国准入


政治研究的治理转向导致人们更加关注非正式制度。对于国际关系学者来说，这促成了最近的学术研究，揭示了非正式政府间组织（IIGO）数量的显着增长。 IIGO 的许多方面仍然未知，包括它们是否涉及跨国行为体 (TNA)。然而，IIGO 是否对 TNA 开放可能会影响其绩效和合法性。鉴于 TNA 访问 IIGO 的重要性，本文探讨了 IIGO 对 TNA 的开放性。我们说明，无论开放与否，IIGO 都会有所不同，并且 TNA 访问的安排也有所不同。从理论上讲，我们在现有文献的基础上假设参与的政治成本、TNA 资源和制度环境会影响 IIGO 对 TNA 开放还是关闭。根据经验，我们提供了有关 TNA 访问 94 个 IIGO 的新数据，并检查了 IIGO 开放性的变化，以探索我们理论预期的有效性。我们发现，无法提供单一账户来了解跨 IIGO 的访问，而且我们的解释因素显示出样本不同亚组的不同影响。我们的研究结果对关于非正式全球治理的兴起和全球治理的开放性的辩论具有影响。