Does the intervention of an international organization in domestic politics render policy change more popular? While voters may ultimately care only about policy outcomes, the involvement of international actors often seems to lead to resentment. Still, citizens may have greater faith in the wisdom of international actors than in their own government. As others have argued, a well-respected international actor might provide a cue, especially for voters considering controversial policies like spending cuts. We test this argument in a novel pre–post experimental panel study conducted in Spain. We find that citizens become less opposed to unpopular spending cuts when informed that they are required by an international institution. The effects differ, however, across the two organizations that we test: They are stronger for the European Union than for the International Monetary Fund. Our findings lend support to studies arguing that the endorsement of specific international organizations can help push through otherwise unpopular policies.

中文翻译：

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国际行为体对公众对政府支出决策支持的影响


国际组织对国内政治的干预是否使政策变化更受欢迎？虽然选民最终可能只关心政策结果，但国际行为体的参与似乎经常导致不满。尽管如此，公民对国际行为体的智慧可能比对他们自己的政府更有信心。正如其他人所说，一个备受尊敬的国际行为者可能会提供一个线索，特别是对于考虑削减开支等有争议政策的选民来说。我们在西班牙进行的一项新颖的前后实验小组研究中测试了这一论点。我们发现，当公民被告知国际机构要求削减不受欢迎的支出时，他们就会不那么反对削减开支。然而，我们测试的两个组织的影响不同：它们对欧盟的影响比对国际货币基金组织的影响更大。我们的研究结果为研究提供了支持，这些研究认为特定国际组织的认可可以帮助推动原本不受欢迎的政策。