International Bodies, Governability and Mexico's Multilateral Policy

GLOBAL ISSUES International Bodies, Governability And Mexico’s Multilateral Policy Antonio Ortiz Mena López Negrete* t s a E p i h C / s r e t u e R here has been a lot of talk about the ing on the topic of international bodies’ govern - challenges of governability in countries ability for several years now, but academia’s Twhere the creation of a democracy has steps forward have not been strongly reflected sparked expectations and hopes but where this in these bodies’ functioning. 1 change in political regime did not translate into In this article, I deal with the tension be - a notable improvement in security and well- tween representativeness and efficiency inside being. Given this, some non-governmental and international bodies and propose some guide - po litical organizations see in international bod - lines for action that Mexico could consider when ies a possible incentive for achieving a better it decides on possible actions in the United performing democracy. Nations ( UN ) and the Organization of Amer - While international bodies may foster dem - ican States ( OAS ). ocratic governability, they themselves face serious challenges in their own governability. Robert O. Keohane, one of the world’s most REPRESENTATIVENESS AND EFFICIENCY outstanding internationalists, has been insist - The challenge for international bodies is very sim - * Director of the Center for Eco nomic Research and ilar to those that domestic political institu tions Teaching Division of International Studies. face: how to achieve a fair balance between rep - 18 GLOBAL ISSUES have not been made, and therefore, the fu nctioning of many international bod - Recent OAS efforts have focused more ies leaves much to be desired. on rediscovering its raison d’être in the post-Cold War It may seem fair that every coun - period than on dealing directly with the challenges try has one vote in the WTO , but it could it face regarding its governability . als o be argued that it is extreme ly unfair . Why should the decisions of China, with its 1.3 billion people, or the United States, the world’s largest trade power , resentativeness and efficiency. 2 By rep - po les: some, like the Inter na tio nal Mon - have the same weight as those of the resentativeness I understand the degree etary Fund, are considered efficient, Marshall Islands (60,000 inhabitants) to which a political institution, whether but not very representative, while oth ers or St. Kitts and Nevis (40,000 inhab - domestic or international, faithfully re - are seen as forums for deliberation of itants)? Without a doubt, the actions of flects the diversity of interests of the limited usefulness, such as perhaps the China and the United States have a individuals, groups or countries that it OAS during the Cold War and the UN greater effect on international trade than represents or which must express their General Assembly. those of the Marshall Islands and St. points of view inside it. Some UN issues are more easily re - Kitts and Nevis, and more Americans I use the concept of efficiency in two solved when they leave the floor of the and C hi nese are affected by develop - senses: as the degree of difficulty with General Assembly and pass to the Sec - ments in international trade than the which a political institution (in this case, urity Council, but even there difficul ties 100,000 inhabitants of the two island international bodies) can come to agree - persist because each of its five per manent countries. ments and carry them out, and as the me mbers has veto power. In this cas e On a national level, usually the lower ease in identifying those resp onsible f or we are faced with an anom aly that repre - chamber is proportionately represen - coming to a decision or not and imple - sents the worst of both worlds: it is tative of the population, which would be menting it. simultaneously unrepresentative and the equivalent of a weighted vote if we A challenge for institutional design inefficient. take into account the number of legis - is precisely how to resolve the trade- off Other very important bodies, like lat ors from each state. The upper cham - betwe en representativeness and efficien - the World Trade Organization ( WTO ), ber is representative of the states or prov - cy: a very representative body in which are also formally representative, but inces, which usu ally means that each all voices have a place and unanimity is have problems with efficiency. Each one has the sam e number of votes, re - needed to come to an agreement will be of its 149 member countries has only one gardless of their population. There are very representative but not very effi cient. vote and the decisions are often made by also different types of majorities, de - On the other hand, a body in which only consensus, or, depending on the issue, pending on the issue under discus sion, a few make the decisions or a simple and by a two-thirds majority. This has meant bu t seldom is consensus or unanimity re - not a two-thirds majority is needed for tha t, as the number of members and con - quired to come to a decision. That would making agreements will be more effi cient, sequently opposing interests have in - usually lead to paralysis. but at the cost of representativeness. creased, the rounds of multilateral trade Internationally, de jure representative - Many international bodies are rep - negotiations last longer and longer: six ness is not always respected in prac tice. resentative but there is no weighted years for the Tokyo Round, eight years for It is not unusual for powerful coun tries voting and decisions are usually made the Uruguay Round, and the five years to exert political pressure and coer cion by consensus or two-thirds majorities. that we have been immersed in the Doha on weaker ones to try to force them to Other bodies have weighted voting, Program for Development, which was vote a certain way. which makes for greater efficiency but slated to end in January 2005. The five permanent members of the less representativeness. The most difficult decisions for rec og - UN Security Council were chosen at The popular perception about inter - nizing and facing this inherent ten sion the end of World War II. We should national bodies ranges between these between representativeness and effi ciency ask ourselves whether, even taking into 19 VOICES OF MEXICO • 78 account the need to achieve a minimum of efficiency in this very re pre sentative Latin America’s geo-political situation institution, it is fair that the internation al offers interesting opportunities: it is wrong to read the current situation balance of forces has rem ained frozen as a dichotomy, with governments of the left and the right. for half a century so that the United There are many “lefts“ and they are extremely varied, Kingdom and France are per manent as is the possibility of interests coinciding. members of the council, but two eco - nomic powers like Japan and Germany, the two great losers of World War II, are not. resentativeness. If the debate about na - nec essary, but insufficient to improve Despite several attempts to ref orm tional institutions is complex, like in the the UN and the OAS ’s efficiency and rep - the UN and the Security Council in par - case of Mexico, it may be even more resentativeness. ticular, very little headway has been so in the international sphere. Ban Ki-moon, UN Secretary-General made and problems of both represen - What can be done given this pa no - since January 2007, will face the great tativeness and efficiency persist. In the rama? It would be healthy to begin with challenge of furthering its operational case of the OAS , recent efforts have fo - three things. In the first place, we should agenda, and he will not be able to con - cused more on rediscovering its raison recognize that there is a tension between centrate only on the substantive issues. d’être in the post-Cold War period than representativeness and efficiency and José Miguel Insulza, who heads up the on dealing directly with the chal lenges that it is very difficult to achieve both at OAS , enjoys great prestige and moral it faces regarding its governabil ity. the same time. It is a good idea to situ - authority both personally, as a political The WTO , for its part, may be great - ate from this viewpoint the strengths exile who defended democracy in his ly weakened if a way is not found to and weaknesses of the body you are country, and professionally, due to his make it more efficient and it continues going to act in, whether to propose outstanding work at the head of differ - to be expected to resolve the conflicts of changes to it or to find the best way to ent ministries in Chile. If he so desires, he interests of so many coun tries with its foster Mexico’s interests without chang - could foster improvements in OAS func - current design. What is not achieved in ing the rules. tioning, which would result in advances negotiations will be channeled through In the second place, fortunately, lead - in priority substantive tasks like demo - the institution’s conflict resolution mech - e rship is important. It is true that the sec - ratic governability in Latin America. anism, creating an over load of conflicts retaries-general of the UN and the OAS In the third place, it must be rec - and the impossibility of resolving them are mainly administrators and not at all ognized that problems of democratic appropriately.

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