The Political Economy of Developing Country Categorization

This dissertation seeks to answer two related questions. First, what strategies have developing countries adopted to address cooperation problems in relation to development matters in multilateral institutional contexts? And subsequently, what impact have these strategies had on agenda setting and institutional design in relation to development in multilateral contexts? It posits that one strategy developing countries have adopted has been ‘category creation’ from below and argues that by reverse engineering developing country categorization, a typically top-down process, the countries have developed a versatile foreign policy tool that they have employed across multiple international institutions. In doing so, it highlights how developing countries, and particularly the smallest among them, have exercised agency within the constraints of an international system whose institutions were designed largely without their input. In focusing on international organizations (IOs) as sites of cooperation and contestation within which the global development agenda is shaped, I find that the actors of interest have acted collectively to influence agenda-setting. By conducting a within-case analysis of the construction and consolidation of the Small Island Developing States (SIDS) category in the context of the United Nations (UN) institutional ecosystem, I trace a key instance of the reverse engineering of developing country categorization and identify the key moves that comprise the strategy: (1) category construction and (2) consolidation of a group identity around a shared characteristic. I show how other groups of developing country actors have deployed the same strategy in the context of the International Monetary Fund and the World Bank, the World Trade Organization (WTO) and the UN Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC). In doing so, I contribute to research on small states, country categories, IOs as sites of contestation, institutional change and forum choice.