Balance Between Safeguarding Individual Positions and Shaping Common Outcome Under Member-Driven Principle: Building a Sence of Collective Agency

This chapter examines the balance between safeguarding individual positions and shaping common outcomes under the member-driven principle, focusing on building a sense of collective agency to give rise to a cooperative culture. As a constitutional norm, member-driven governance locates collective decision-making authority in the membership, with no institutional actor possessing autonomous power to determine outcomes independently. Procedurally operationalized through consensus, this framework faces practical strains when misinterpreted as a guarantee of maximum individual autonomy, causing Members to prioritize fixed national preferences over joint problem-solving. To prevent this fragmentation, a cooperative culture must transform joint practice into shared expectations where authority, though individually held, is exercised within a sphere of interdependence. Rather than relying on normative appeals, establishing this culture depends on an enabling institutional environment defined by three interrelated preconditions: informational symmetry to reduce cognitive disadvantages, procedural predictability to stabilize expectations, and an institutionally structured negotiation environment to foster continuous engagement. Ultimately, the chapter analyzes how domestic politics acts as both a constraint and an enabler of this collective engagement. By designing flexible strategies, utilizing capital-level engagement and adopting a pragmatic “living with” approach to accept “second best” outcomes, Member can align domestic constraints with shared institutional objectives, turning domestic politics into a resource for durable cooperative consensus.