Political-Administrative Relationships in International Bureaucracies

Abstract

The relationship between politicians and bureaucrats is central to policy-making within public administrations. The political-administrative relationship varies across organizations, with civil servants enjoying more or less autonomy and politicians exercising more or less control. With the internationalization of governance, existing political-administrative relationships have come under pressure and new ones have been forged. The panel aims to examine the variation in the relationships struck between civil servants and their political masters in international organizations: How much discretion is granted to international civil servants? What sources of power do administrators and politicians possess? Do international bureaucrats serve the political principal or rather the general interest?