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  5. Why do states change positions in the United Nations General Assembly?
 
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Why do states change positions in the United Nations General Assembly?

Author(s)
Brazys, Samuel  
Panke, Diana  
Uri
http://hdl.handle.net/10197/7325
Date Issued
2015-11-17
Date Available
2016-09-14T01:00:10Z
Abstract
Many international organizations deal with repeated items on their agendas. The United Nations General Assembly (UNGA) is no exception as many of its resolutions reoccur over time. A novel dataset on UNGA voting on repeated resolutions reveals considerable, but variable, amounts of change on resolutions by states over time. To shed light on underlying causes for voting (in)consistency, this paper draws on IR literature on negotiations and foreign policy changes to develop hypotheses on the role of domestic and international constraints. Our findings suggest that states with limited financial capacity cannot develop their own, principled, voting positions on all norms on the negotiation agenda. Consequently, these states can be more flexible in adjusting their voting position for reoccurring IO norms and are more prone to change their positions over time. Moreover, states with constrained decision-makers change position less frequently due to pluralistic gridlock. Finally, while large and rich states make a small number of purposive vote shifts, poor and aid-recipient states engage in 'serial shifting' on the same resolutions, a finding suggestive of vote-buying. The prevalence of position changes suggests that the international norm environment may be more fragile and susceptible to a revisionist agenda than is commonly assumed.
Other Sponsorship
Freiburg Research Institute for Advanced Studies (FRIAS)
Type of Material
Journal Article
Publisher
Sage Publications
Journal
International Political Science Review
Copyright (Published Version)
2015 the Authors
Subjects

UNGA

Foreign policy

International norms

Diplomacy

Foreign aid

DOI
10.1177/0192512115616540
Language
English
Status of Item
Peer reviewed
This item is made available under a Creative Commons License
https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/3.0/ie/
File(s)
No Thumbnail Available
Name

UNGA__IPSR_FINAL_20_10_15.docx

Size

78.31 KB

Format

Microsoft Word

Checksum (MD5)

67c71e262f2d7ac37af2499cfb6bcd35

Owning collection
Politics and International Relations Research Collection
Mapped collections
Geary Institute Research Collection

Item descriptive metadata is released under a CC-0 (public domain) license: https://creativecommons.org/public-domain/cc0/.
All other content is subject to copyright.

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