Suchergebnisse

International public administrations (IPAs) have become an essential feature of global governance, contributing to what some have described as the 'bureaucratization of world politics'. While we do know that IPAs matter for international politics, we neither know exactly to what extent nor how exactly they matter for international organizations' policy making processes and subsequent outputs. This book provides an innovative perspective on IPAs and their agency in introducing the concept of administrative styles to the study of international organizations and global public policy. It argues that the administrative bodies of international organizations can develop informal working routines that allow them to exert influence beyond their formal autonomy and mandate. The theoretical argument is tested by an encompassing comparative assessment of administrative styles and their determinants across eight IPAs providing rich empirical insight gathered in more than 100 expert interviews.

"This book was inspired by the idea that in order to better understand international organizations' agency, we need to re-direct our attention from their formal characteristics and exceptional achievements or failures to the ordinary, informal workings of their staff. Much ink has been spilled on international public administrations' role in shaping various extraordinary events and policy outputs. Yet, we can learn a lot about (international) organizations by examining their staffers' actions not in critical moments but in their daily work. Likewise, formal characteristics alone fail to capture the deeper running, less easily quantifiable intricacies of international organizations. There is simply more to international public administrations than single indicators can tell us"--