The Agency of the Global South’s Regional Organizations through the Institutionalization of Staff Recruitment

Abstract

Abstract How is staff recruitment in regional organizations institutionalized? This article focuses on explaining the determinants of staff recruitment institutionalization in regional organizations (ROs). It is important to understand how ROs recruit their regional staff, as ROs have become players with an increasing influence in global governance, and as regional (and international) bureaucracies constantly contribute to the reshaping of power relations with member states. The institutionalization of staff recruitment offers an insightful and innovative way of unpacking the way ROs operate and exert agency. In this perspective, the article examines an RO from the Global South, the Central American Integration System (SICA), and argues that member states institutionalize staff recruitment for fear of losing control to a powerful combination of regional bureaucracy and international donors. This single-case study will be comparable with many Global South ROs that share similar characteristics, and will provide generalizable results in the realm of RO studies. This article sheds light on a very poorly known case among ROs and helps to extend the empirical scope of International Public Administration (IPA) studies beyond the “Global North,” and consolidate the field of comparative regionalism. To develop the argument, the article uses empirical material from several pieces of in-depth fieldwork conducted within SICA since 2009. It analyses official legal documents and internal documents relating to staff regulation, and uses semi-structured interviews focused on practices of recruitment standards. Keywords: Staff recruitment, Regional organizations, Institutionalization, Regional bureaucratic autonomy, External interventions