Why such a discursive inefficiency? The Food and Agriculture Organisation in the global agricultural policy debate ; Pourquoi une telle inefficacité dans la compétition internationale pour la définition des politiques agricoles ? A propos des incapacités discursives de la FAO

Abstract

Using an analytical grid mixing international relations and public policy analysis, we assume in this paper that international organisations compete actively at the international level for the formulation of public policies. We enlighten the difficulties experienced by the Food and Agriculture Organisation (FAO) both to exist and to be considered as legitimate in international arenas and debates on agricultural policies. Our main hypothesis to explain such difficulties is that the FAO makes a poor use of its cognitive resources and that its discursive production is weak. This hinders the FAO from adding value to international debates and from appearing as a legitimate discussion partner. In this paper, we propose three categories of explanatory variables for such a cognitive and discursive malfunctioning: (i) acting as an international bureaucracy, the FAO presents some specific organisational weaknesses (policy work organisation and coordination, cultural tensions and paradigmatic oppositions between units and departments, leadership and management problems); (ii) the FAO is subject to the political control of developed countries that are able to leverage budgetary pressure; (iii) no efficient measures have ever been taken to really include the civil society and peasant organisations in the FAO's policy works and thoughts. ; Dans un cadre analytique mélant approche cognitive des politiques publiques et sociologie des relations internationales, ce texte pose l'existence d'une concurrence internationale pour l'influence sur la fabrication des politiques publiques à laquelle prennent pleinement part les organisations internationales. Il fait ensuite le constat des difficultés de la FAO, Organisation des Nations Unies pour l'Alimentation et l'Agriculture, à faire entendre sa voix dans les débats mondiaux sur les politiques agricoles. L'hypothèse avancée pour expliquer ces difficultés envoie à des défaillances dans l'emploi de ses ressources cognitives et dans la qualité de sa production discursive, qui empêchent la ...