Who Participates? International Organizations and Non-State Actors in Global Governance

Abstract

Although all Intergovernmental Organizations (IGOs) interact with non-state actors (NSAs) in some capacity, the extent to which NSAs are granted participatory roles in the governance of IGOs varies substantially. Why do some intergovernmental organizations - intergovernmental clubs of sovereign states - extend access, participatory opportunity or even participatory rights, to non-state actors? The goal of this project is to address the question of variation. I investigate the interests of the actors with power to determine the rules regarding engagement with NSAs - member states and IGO secretariats - and identify specific incentives for each actor to establish rules or practice of engagement with NSAs in each type of engagement. I find that the member states and secretariats that determine these engagement practices benefit from the inclusion or participation of NSAs in specific and predictable ways. By identifying the interests and incentives of the relevant actors, it is possible to predict the creation of particular sorts of engagement and explain variation in those engagement mechanisms across different intergovernmental organizations. I test the proposed relationship between IGO interests and participatory rules through examination of the United Nations system and three UN organizations: The UN Development Programme (UNDP), the UN Children's Fund (UNICEF), and the UN Environment Programme (UNEP). I find that the historical evidence supports an interest-based theory for the granting of participation rights to NSAs within IGOS. Secretariats frequently support selective partnerships with NSAs for the purpose of advancing their mission, and assemblies generally prefer to establish informal consultation mechanisms rather than formal rights of participation for NSAs. Formal participation rights linked to the member-state venue of an IGO assembly are advanced only when in the shadow of strong support from states, or where the assembly recognizes that NSA participation provides benefits that cannot be gained through informal consultation alone.