Global Consumer Organizations by Karsten Ronit

Author:Karsten Ronit [Ronit, Karsten]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Tags: International Relations, Political Science, General, History & Theory
ISBN: 9781317377597
Google: EdNzCgAAQBAJ
Goodreads: 26584906
Publisher: Routledge
Published: 2014-03-15T00:00:00+00:00

4 Coordination between agencies and across issues

• Coordination – between development, trade, competition and consumer policies

• Coordination – between education, development and consumer policies

• Coordination – between trade, competition and consumer policies

• Coordination – between sustainability, development and consumer policies

• Coordination – between food, health and consumer policies

• Conclusion

There is no overarching global body responsible for consumer policy and capable of picking up new challenges, but a range of activities are carried out single-handedly by intergovernmental organizations, both by those that seek to define general rules and guidelines in consumer policy and by those committed to special areas. However, many issues cross different institutional boundaries, and new organizational formats must be created to host such issues. Here inter-agency coordination becomes relevant and warrants an additional analysis. We have briefly discussed certain aspects of cooperation, but have retained some well established cases of coordination for further scrutiny in this chapter.

Several organizations are involved in inter-agency coordination. Some have an ad hoc character and are soon dissolved, while other activities are taken care of within a permanent institutional framework where resources are pooled and principles of cooperation are formally agreed. This is a recognition that single agencies are not always competent to effectively administer a given field of consumer policy or influential enough to provide the sufficient amount of legitimacy.

Still, there are many options in inter-agency coordination. Should a smaller or larger group of bodies be drawn into cooperation? Will general and special organizations be required to solve the task? Can affected interests among consumers and business be properly integrated in problem-solving? These are some of the questions to be posed when coordination is required, but there is no blueprint for coordination, and a variety of combinations attest to the great flexibility of arrangements.

In inter-agency work, different traditions, interests and approaches are brought together, and in this process the existing domains of the participating organizations are tested. This is a particular challenge when the mandates of the agencies are expanding and when ambitions to move into new areas are fostered, leading to adaptations in organizational structures and strategies. The challenges to existing turfs are a perennial issue in theories of bureaucratic politics, but these are not sufficiently developed for analyzing the different problems of intergovernmental bodies. However, this chapter offers some clues as to how these can be studied.

Although coordination is essentially based on the joint interests of participating agencies, the many actors have different knowledge bases and offer different solutions. The agencies involved do not always play the same role in coordination. Often one organization assumes the lead role and provides the core facilities, thus some kind of hierarchy may exist between the agencies, but it is also important that a consensus be achieved and that the contributions of different agencies be recognized.

There are a number of policy clusters that cross multiple agencies, necessitating coordination and leading to the creation of new bodies, but that are still tied to existing organizations. In this chapter we focus on some of the major

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