Ideas, Beliefs and Norms: what Role for International Parliamentary Institutions?

Andrea Cofelice
December 2019

The research agenda on international parliamentary institutions (IPIs) is steadily expanding. This paper seeks to conceive an analytical framework to illustrate how IPIs engage in international affairs by shaping and promoting ideas and norms. More specifically, drawing on Finnemore and Sikkink’s 1998 seminal work on the norm life cycle, this paper addresses three main issues, that is: 1) how ideas enter IPIs; 2) how parliamentary actors shape norms and policies; 3) how parliamentary actors spread norms, both within and outside their own communities of member states.

Keywords: international parliamentary institutions; norm life cycle; constructivism.

Andrea Cofelice is Research Fellow at Centro Studi sul Federalismo

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