Page 224 - Contemporary Political Sociology Globalization Politics and Power

210 Globalization and Democracy

voting to make final decisions, it is doubtful that any of them could be
considered democratic.
Different IGOs have different voting procedures. Here we will consider
only a selection of the most important. The United Nations is the most
inclusive IGO (virtually all states are members), and it probably enjoys
the most legitimacy worldwide as a result. It is nominally democratic in
that the UN Charter stipulates that all states are to be treated equally
(unlike the League of Nations, which it replaced), though (unlike the EU)
the UN does not require member states themselves to be democratic. Set
up with the aim of keeping world peace after World War II, it has since
grown to encompass a vast range of activities, from setting and monitor-
ing human rights standards, to establishing programs to advance social
and economic development, protecting refugees, and encouraging envi-
ronmental sustainability. In the General Assembly – the main deliberative
forum of the UN – all member states have one vote each. Similarly, in the
Economic and Social Council (ECOSOC), the members of which are
elected by the General Assembly on the basis of geographical representa-
tion for a three - year term, each member has one vote. This nominal
equality between states itself raises diffi cult questions for democratic pro-
cedure: should all states have equal voting rights when some represent
tiny numbers of people, while others are huge? Is Tuvala the same as India
for these purposes? If, however, states were to have votes proportionate
to their populations, the balance of power for any decision would be held
permanently by just a few states. These issues do not become as important
as we might expect, however, because the General Assembly and ECOSOC
are largely seen as “ talking shops, ” where international agreements are
based on consensus between state representatives. Diffi cult decisions that
result in the UN taking action as a political body take place in the Security
Council. The Security Council is strikingly undemocratic. It consists of
five permanent members (US, UK, and France, the states that founded the

UN on the basis of their victory in World War II, and their closest allies,
Russia and China) and ten others elected by the General Assembly for a
two - year term. Each of the permanent members has the power to veto
any decision, even if unanimously agreed upon by the other members.
These decisions concern the core business of the UN, war and peace: the

Security Council decides whether a country is justified in attacking another,
and how to deal with it, whether by economic sanctions, sending peace-
keeping forces, or by authorizing member states to take military action.
As George Monbiot notes, the permanent members of the UN Security
Council are also those who sell the most arms. In addition, the fi ve per-
manent members have vetoes over any constitutional reform of the UN,