40 research outputs found
Equitable representation in councils: theory and an application to the United Nations Security Council
We analyze democratic equity in council voting games (CVGs). In a CVG, a
voting body containing all members delegates decision-making to a (time-varying) subset
of its members, as describes, e.g., the relationship between the United Nations General
Assembly and the United Nations Security Council (UNSC). We develop a theoretical
framework for analyzing democratic equitability in CVGs at both the country and region
levels, and for different assumptions regarding preference correlation. We apply the
framework to evaluate the equitability of the UNSC, and the claims of those who seek to
reform it. We find that the individual permanent members are overrepresented by between
21.3 times (United Kingdom) and 3.8 times (China) from a country-level perspective,
while from a region perspective Eastern Europe is the most heavily overrepresented region
with more than twice its equitable representation, and Africa the most heavily underrepresented.
Our equity measures do not preclude some UNSC members from exercising veto
rights, however
Mr Ruddock goes to Geneva
Mr Ruddock explains Australia's record on racial discrimination to the UN