National Attributes as Predictors of Delegate Attitudes at the United Nations

Abstract

The purpose of this paper is to explore United Nations delegate attitudes toward the major organs of the United Nations, i.e., the Security Council, General Assembly, Economic and Social Council, Secretariat, International Court of Justice, and the General and Main Committees of the General Assembly. In respect to these organs, the study probes “delegate satisfactions” concerning voting procedures, membership arrangements, and general role and past performance; “delegate perceptions” in respect to present and future importance and the probability of changes occurring in respect to membership arrangements; and “delegate desires” in respect to modifying roles and powers. The study also attempts to ascertain if delegate attitude patterns can be related to “predictors” generated from attributes of the delegates' home states. That is, is it possible to predict delegate attitudes from information about their home states?The potential importance of delegate attitudes in respect to the United Nations will be treated in detail later in the paper. Here, suffice it to say that delegates make decisions, relay information, give advice, and engage in other types of activities which allow them to help shape the institutions in which they operate. Because this is the case, it is assumed that the discovery of attitudinal patterns and the relationship of these patterns to various other indices is a potentially fruitful line of inquiry, which may facilitate an understanding of, and provide a basis for predictions about, the political processes of the United Nations.