Diplomacy and Global Governance: The Diplomatic Service in an Age of Worldwide Interdependence by Thomas Nowotny

Author:Thomas Nowotny [Nowotny, Thomas]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Tags: Political Science, General
ISBN: 9781351522243
Google: UPdKDwAAQBAJ
Goodreads: 38505711
Publisher: Routledge
Published: 2011-05-04T00:00:00+00:00

according to the higher or lower impact that work in those bodies will have on actual policies.

The following graph portrays these two dimensions:

Figure 15.1 Parliamentarians as Direct Actors in International Relations

Figure 15.1 demonstrates that the historic development has been from the lower left corner to the upper right one. It went from a low independence and a low practical relevance, parliamentarians had in international affairs, to greater independence and greater practical relevance. The process seems to be driven by two motives. First by the motive of parliamentarians to actually do what they are elected for—namely to deal with issues that voters feel to be important, even if such issues originate from beyond the borders and/or can be solved in an international context only.

International institutions, on their turn, might wish for an added political legitimacy that the visible involvement of elected officials can provide to their work; narrowing what is described as the democratic deficit of such international bodies with their frequently weak links to national electorates.

Yet these are long-term, drawn-out processes and at the moment we are still faced with a wide array of arrangements that facilitate the participation of parliamentarians in international affairs.

They become members of the national delegation at official visits to other states; or they become members of delegations dispatched to meetings of international organizations:

Some states and Austria too, have made it routine to include parliamentarians in delegations sent to the annual meetings of the United Nations General Assembly in New York. These parliamentarians do not participate in the roll calls taken in the various committees of the General Assembly. That task is left to diplomats. But they do sit in these meetings; and they do have their voice in the morning briefings at the Austrian Delegation. The parliamentarians are chosen not just from the ranks of the governing parties. The parties of the opposition too, are given the chance to send deputies to attend the UN General Assembly.5

The participation at the General Assembly provides members of parliament with a unique opportunity to gain first-hand knowledge of the many fields of global governance the United Nations is involved in. It provides them with access too, to otherwise not accessible sources of information.

In a similar vein, parliamentarians have been included in delegations on occasion of official visits to other states. Whether that happened was dependent on the importance to Austria of the country visited; the relevance of issues that were raised during that visit; and last not least on the interest, track record and standing of the members of Parliament asked to join the delegation. Parliamentarians from border districts have thus, for example, become members of the Austrian delegation on visits to a country on the other side of the border.

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