Abstract

Although international organizations (IOs) and their secretariats play important roles in international politics, we know surprisingly little about their staffing composition and the factors that shape it. What accounts for the national composition of the secretariats of IOs? We theorize that the national composition of international secretariats is shaped by three factors: the desire by powerful states for institutional control, a commonly shared interest in a secretariat's functional effectiveness, and, increasingly, a need for secretariats to be seen as legitimate by being representative of the global population. Building on recent constructivist literature, we argue that IOs face increasing normative pressure to be representative in their staffing patterns. Using panel regression, we assess our argument with a new dataset covering states’ representation in the secretariats of thirty-five United Nations system bodies from 1997 to 2015. The results indicate that while functional effectiveness plays a significant and stable role, international secretariats have become increasingly representative of the global population. Moreover, this has come primarily at the expense of the over-representation of powerful states. This shift from power to representation is particularly strong in large IOs with high political and societal visibility. When it comes to IO secretariats, representativeness (increasingly) matters.

中文翻译：

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国际组织秘书处的代表性日益提高：联合国系统的证据，1997-2015年

摘要

尽管国际组织（IOs）及其秘书处在国际政治中发挥着重要作用，但令人惊讶的是，他们对其人员构成及其构成因素知之甚少。是什么造成了IO秘书处的国家组成？我们认为，国际秘书处的国家组成由三个因素决定：强大国家对机构控制的渴望，对秘书处职能有效性的共同关注，以及越来越需要使秘书处具有代表性才能被视为合法的全球人口。在最近的建构主义文献的基础上，我们认为IO面临着越来越大的规范压力，要求其代表人员配置模式。使用面板回归 我们使用一个新的数据集来评估我们的论点，该数据集涵盖了1997年至2015年联合国在35个联合国系统机构的秘书处中的代表性。全球人口。而且，这主要是以牺牲强大国家的代表性为代价的。在具有较高政治和社会知名度的大型IO中，这种从权力到代表制的转变尤其明显。对于IO秘书处，代表性（越来越多）很重要。国际秘书处已日益成为全球人口的代表。而且，这主要是以牺牲强大国家的代表性为代价的。在具有较高政治和社会知名度的大型IO中，这种从权力到代表制的转变尤其明显。对于IO秘书处，代表性（越来越多）很重要。国际秘书处已日益成为全球人口的代表。而且，这主要是以牺牲强大国家的代表性为代价的。在具有较高政治和社会知名度的大型IO中，这种从权力到代表制的转变尤其明显。对于IO秘书处，代表性（越来越多）很重要。