Consensus decision-making and democratic discourse in the General Agreement on Tariffs and Trade 1947 and World Trade Organisation

2021 ◽  
Vol 9 (1) ◽  
pp. 37-68
Author(s):  
Claerwen O’Hara
Keyword(s):  
Decision Making ◽  
World Trade ◽  
International Economic Order ◽  
World Trade Organisation ◽  
Consensus Procedure ◽  
Democratic Discourse ◽  
1960S And 1970S ◽  
The 1960S ◽  
Consensus Decision Making ◽  
Consensus Decision

Abstract This paper provides a genealogy of consensus decision-making and democratic discourse in the multilateral trade regime. It argues that the contemporary link between the World Trade Organisation’s consensus procedure and ideas of ‘international democracy’ has its roots in a struggle that took place over the international economic order in the 1960s and 1970s.

scholarly journals Consensus and Diversity in the World Trade Organization: A Queer Perspective

AJIL Unbound ◽  
2022 ◽  
Vol 116 ◽  
pp. 32-37
Author(s):  
Claerwen O'Hara
Keyword(s):  
Decision Making ◽  
World Trade Organization ◽  
Queer Theory ◽  
World Trade ◽  
The United States ◽  
Veto Power ◽  
The World ◽  
Consensus Procedure ◽  
Consensus Decision Making ◽  
Consensus Decision

When the World Trade Organization (WTO) was established in 1995, it was seen as representative of a new era in international law, which claimed to be more functional and cooperative than the Cold War years. Fast forward to 2022, most commentators proclaim that the WTO is in “crisis.” For over two decades, its membership has struggled to reach decisions and, in 2019, the WTO was “dejudicialized” by the United States blocking consensus on appointments to the Appellate Body. In seeking to understand what went wrong, some commentators have focused on the operation of the WTO's consensus procedure and, in particular, the way it can afford states a veto power. In this essay, I take a different approach by considering how the discursive effects of consensus decision making have played into some of the problems facing the WTO today. Inspired by Gibson-Graham's work on “queering the economy,” I do so by unmooring queer theory from its base of gender and sexuality and applying queer insights to a discourse analysis of statements made in relation to the Uruguay Round of multilateral trade negotiations, which lasted from 1986 until 1993 and culminated in the agreement to establish the WTO. I show how the use of consensus decision making served to cultivate an intolerance of economic difference by giving rise to discourses of worldwide sameness and agreement. Finally, I consider what a queerer approach to trade-related decision making might look like.

scholarly journals Consensus Decision Making by Fish

2008 ◽  
Vol 18 (22) ◽  
pp. 1773-1777 ◽  
Author(s):  
David J.T. Sumpter ◽  
Jens Krause ◽  
Richard James ◽  
Iain D. Couzin ◽  
Ashley J.W. Ward
Keyword(s):  
Decision Making ◽  
Consensus Decision Making ◽  
Consensus Decision

scholarly journals PERAN PERAWAT DALAM MENGANALISIS BUDAYA ORGANISASI DAN BUDAYA KESELAMATAN PASIEN DI RUMAH SAKIT

2019 ◽  
Author(s):  
Muhaini Atmayana Purba
Keyword(s):  
Decision Making ◽  
Consensus Decision Making ◽  
Consensus Decision

Latar belakang : Membangun budaya keselamatan pasien merupakan langkah awal dalam pengembangan keselamatan pasien. Budaya keselamatan pasien di rumah sakit merupakan bagian dari budaya organisasi, sehingga pengkajian tentang budaya organisasi diperlukan untuk menjadi panduan dalam mengembangkan keselamatan pasien. Tujuan : Tujuan penulisan ini yaitu mengidenifikasi peran perawat dalam menganalisis budaya organisasi dan budaya keselamatan pasien di rumah sakit. Metode : Metode yang digunakan merupakan literatur review atau suatu perbandingan atau analisis antara satu jurnal dengan jurnal lainnya dari berbagai sumber seperti referensi jurnal, buku teks dan e-book. Hasil : Tipe budaya Clan didapatkan sebagai tipe budaya organisasi yang dominan sekaligus kuat dan menjadi panduan untuk melakukan perubahan dalam organisasi khususnya dalam pengembangan keselamatan pasien. Rencana tindak lanjut dibuat dan disepakati dalam Consensus Decision Making Group (CDMG) untuk mengartikulasikan unsur keselamatan pasien dalam visi dan misi organisasi serta penguatan budaya keselamatan melalui pelatihan keselamatan pasien bagi seluruh staf. Kesimpulan : . Rencana dalam tindak lanjut dibuat dan disepakati dalam Consensus Decision Making Group (CDMG) untuk mengartikulasikan unsur keselamatan pasien dalam visi dan misi organisasi serta penguatan budaya keselamatan melalui pelatihan keselamatan pasien bagi seluruh staf dan juga perawat.

Legacies

2020 ◽  
pp. 191-194
Author(s):  
Mary J. Henold
Keyword(s):  
Decision Making ◽  
Gender Roles ◽  
Women's Leadership ◽  
Pope Francis ◽  
Gender Essentialism ◽  
Participation In Decision Making ◽  
1960S And 1970S ◽  
The 1960S ◽  
The Church

The Epilogue considers recent attempts to affirm the importance of Catholic laywomen in the church and extend their participation in decision making, while upholding Catholic teaching on gender essentialism and complementarity. Such limited efforts must be placed in the context of the 1960s and 1970s, when Catholic women’s leadership was also affirmed, and yet these women were still limited to prescribed roles and excluded from power. The work that Catholic laywomen did in these years to challenge Catholic teaching on gender roles, and remake laywomen’s identity, has been largely ignored and forgotten. As a result, the church, and particularly Pope Francis, continue to give lip service to laywomen’s dignity while failing to listen to their voices or give them genuine authority.

Pro Familia and the reform of abortion laws in West Germany, 1967–1983

2019 ◽  
Vol 17 (3) ◽  
pp. 297-311
Author(s):  
Claudia Roesch
Keyword(s):  
Decision Making ◽  
New York ◽  
West Germany ◽  
Reform Process ◽  
Legal Abortion ◽  
The West ◽  
Reproductive Decision Making ◽  
Medical Emergencies ◽  
1960S And 1970S ◽  
The 1960S

This article investigates the role of the West German family planning association Pro Familia in the abortion reform of the 1960s and 1970s. It examines the question of legal abortion from the perspective of reproductive decision-making and asks who was to make a decision about having an abortion in the reform process—the woman, her doctor, or a counsellor. During the early reform suggestions of §218 in the 1960s, Pro Familia supported the West German solution of allowing legal abortion only in medical emergencies. Opinions within the organization changed as leading members witnessed legalization in Great Britain and New York. The feminist movement and the Catholic opposition to legal abortion influenced positions in the reform phase of the 1970s. Meanwhile, Pro Familia put emphasis on compulsory pregnancy crisis counselling as aid in decision-making for individual women and a tool for putting a decision into practice. Throughout the reform process, Pro Familia continued to perceive legal abortion not as way to enable women to make their own decision but as a pragmatic solution to emergencies.

scholarly journals Communication speeds up but impairs the consensus decision in a dyadic colour estimation task

2020 ◽  
Vol 7 (7) ◽  
pp. 191974
Author(s):  
Liutao Yu ◽  
Chundi Wang ◽  
Si Wu ◽  
Da-Hui Wang
Keyword(s):  
Decision Making ◽  
Group Decision ◽  
Daily Life ◽  
Consensus Formation ◽  
Exact Role ◽  
Estimation Task ◽  
Consensus Decision Making ◽  
Consensus Decision ◽  
Better Than

Communication plays an important role in consensus decision-making which pervades our daily life. However, the exact role of communication in consensus formation is not clear. Here, to study the effects of communication on consensus formation, we designed a dyadic colour estimation task, where a pair of isolated participants repeatedly estimated the colours of discs until they reached a consensus or completed eight estimations, either with or without communication. We show that participants’ estimates gradually approach each other, reaching towards a consensus, and these are enhanced with communication. We also show that dyadic consensus estimation is on average better than individual estimation. Surprisingly, consensus estimation without communication generally outperforms that with communication, indicating that communication impairs the improvement of consensus estimation. However, without communication, it takes longer to reach a consensus. Moreover, participants who partially cooperate with each other tend to result in better overall consensus. Taken together, we have identified the effect of communication on the dynamics of consensus formation, and the results may have implications on group decision-making in general.

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