Consensus Decision-Making and Democratic Discourse in the General Agreement on Tariffs and Trade 1947 and World Trade Organisation

2020 ◽  
Author(s):  
Claerwen O'Hara
2021 ◽  
Vol 9 (1) ◽  
pp. 37-68
Author(s):  
Claerwen O’Hara

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.


AJIL Unbound ◽  
2022 ◽  
Vol 116 ◽  
pp. 32-37
Author(s):  
Claerwen O'Hara

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.


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

2019 ◽  
Author(s):  
Muhaini Atmayana Purba

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.


2020 ◽  
Vol 7 (7) ◽  
pp. 191974
Author(s):  
Liutao Yu ◽  
Chundi Wang ◽  
Si Wu ◽  
Da-Hui Wang

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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