PSC 116G Chapter Notes - Chapter 7: United Nations Economic And Social Council, United Nations Secretariat, United Nations General Assembly
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PSC Textbook vocab
Chapter 7
International governmental organizations (IGOs):
• organizations whose membership consists of three or more nation-states
• representatives gather to discuss issues that are of mutual interest to member states
• have permanent secretaries or bureaucracies
o UN and World Trade Organization are IGOs, G-7 is not)
• All are formed by states and have states, rather than individual citizens, firms, or other
actors, as their members
• States for IGOs because it is in their interest to do so
• Liberal institutionalism, focuses on collective action problems
Transnational corporations (TNCs):
• Organizations that work across national boundaries but whose members are not states
• Most prevalent categories of transnational actors
• Corporations that have operations in more than one country
o Also called multinational corporations (MNCs)
Nongovernmental organizations (NGOs):
• Second broad category of transnational actors
• Diverse organizations – categorizing them difficult
o Ex: Greenpeace
o Similar to domestic interest groups but have concerns and organizational
structures that are transactional in scope
• Includes groups that focus not on influencing governments but on conducting activities
in different countries
o Ex: International Committee of the Red Cross, humanitarian organizations
o Prodemocracy groups
o Health care providers
• Key Characteristic: all organization members may be individual or nation-level
organizations, but are not states
• Formal definition: a broad category of diverse organizations, including groups similar to
domestic interest groups but with transnational concerns and organizational structure,
and groups that focus not on influencing governments but conducting activities in other
countries
Transaction costs: Refer to the efforts needed to negotiate and organize collaboration
UN General Assembly:
• Created to provide a forum for discussion – states can discuss and debate issues that
arise
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