Show description

G. peace/ anti-nuclear activists and ecological, religious, communalist, feminist, Rationalist and Reflectivist Approaches 35 gay liberation and other movements) to create an expanded disjuncture between civil society and the state. e. the legitimacy of the state. To the extent that the UN remains a legitimator of the state and the state system, ‘decentralists’ will be tempted to discard it as not serving the interest of ‘the people’. The revolutionary change position is therefore much more stark than the transformative reformist one.

Insist that any changes envisioned or attempted should, however, contribute to the UN’s raison d’être. Attempt to limit the parameters of organizational change to fit the overall predetermined goal of the dominant coalition within the organization. Recognize that organizational behaviour may change as actors add new activities (or drop old, outdated ones). Yet, the underlying values and ultimate purposes of the UN will not be questioned. 1 (continued ) Status quo advocates Incremental process reformists Adaptive reformists Do not consider major structural changes to the organization, but rather call on member governments to live up to their constitutional undertakings and to support fully the Charter goals of the entire UN.

According to the most radical challengers of the reformist position, a major overhaul of the entire UN is needed, not piecemeal ‘reforms’ which effectively forestall needed change. 54 Those Rationalist and Reflectivist Approaches 31 UN operational structures that are functioning properly could conceivably be reconverted into agencies of a new generation organization. However, the emphasis must be on creating international institutional structures to meet different requirements in the 1990s and beyond from those of the immediate post-Second World War era.