The Political Economy of International Political Organizations: the League of Nations and the United Nations.

Abstract

The contemporary world system operates with a capitalist world economy and inter-nation state political system. While the world economy has witnessed increased centralization which resulted in the emergence of oligopolistic cartels, the inter-nation state system resisted any centralizing political efforts. International political organizations attest to the continued control that the nation-state has over political legitimation. Accumulation has become dominated by those large oligopolistic cartels. In the Contemporary world economy, the nation-state tries to mediate class interests nationally and internationally. International political organizations provide institutional arenas where conflicting interests of core states, core and periphery and socialist and capitalist states can be addressed through the collective interaction of nation-states. Since international political organizations have no power of their own, they can only succeed in this task of conflict management in as much as they can rely on the economic and political influence of a world hegemonic power. Both the League of Nations and the United Nations were connected to the rise of the U.S. as a hegemonic power. Failure of the U.S. to join the League affected the success of the organization in affecting global issues like the economic competition among the core economies and states. The United Nations System benefited from the lesson of the League. It was built on the uncontested acceptance of the U.S. as the world hegemonic power. Within the United Nations, two important struggles dominated the international scene. The conflict between socialist and capitalist states was centered on the issue of autonomy and influence of the socialist subsystem. Secondly, there emerged a conflict between core and peripheral classes over the control of peripheral economies and their growth.Ph.D.International lawUniversity of Michiganhttp://deepblue.lib.umich.edu/bitstream/2027.42/158839/1/8215008.pd