'To be, but not to be seen' : exploring the impact of international civil servants
By: YI-CHONG, Xu
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Contributor(s): Weller, Patrick.
Material type: 
ArticlePublisher: Malden, MA : Blackwell Publishers, March 2008Public administration : an international quarterly 86, 1, p. 35-51Abstract: International civil servants (ICS) are largely excluded from the analysis of International Organizations (IOs) because states are assumed to be the determining force in shaping their behaviour. Even principal-agent and constructivist analyses often treat an IOs staff as a unit and are concerned primarily with states capacities to control IOs. Examining the opportunities of ICS, rather than the choices of states, provides a better means of understanding the capacities of ICS to contribute to the operation of IOs, and especially when they participate in multilateral negotiations. We suggest that structure, competence, legitimacy and culture provide a framework for analysing ICS variable capacity. We use the Secretariat of the WTO, known as a member-driven organization, to illustrate how ICS can play a critical role in achieving the IOs objectives. A word on our title. It comes from Esse, non videri in the original, as quoted by a director at the WTO in an interview in April 2003
International civil servants (ICS) are largely excluded from the analysis of International Organizations (IOs) because states are assumed to be the determining force in shaping their behaviour. Even principal-agent and constructivist analyses often treat an IOs staff as a unit and are concerned primarily with states capacities to control IOs. Examining the opportunities of ICS, rather than the choices of states, provides a better means of understanding the capacities of ICS to contribute to the operation of IOs, and especially when they participate in multilateral negotiations. We suggest that structure, competence, legitimacy and culture provide a framework for analysing ICS variable capacity. We use the Secretariat of the WTO, known as a member-driven organization, to illustrate how ICS can play a critical role in achieving the IOs objectives. A word on our title. It comes from Esse, non videri in the original, as quoted by a director at the WTO in an interview in April 2003
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