Methodologie van positiebepaling in de Verenigde Naties door stemvergelijking

Mazee, W.M.

The position of a country in the General Assembly is defined as the whole of formal utterances of that country in the General Assembly in terms of pro or contra something or somebody. While ’position’ as such shows how pro or contra a country is, it is argued that it makes more sense to compare the position of one country with the positions of other countries. In the General Assembly a country can sponsor, speak or vote. It is argued that the best way to determine the position of a country is by using roll calls. The implications of selecting a number of roll calls for analysis — as is usually done — are discussed; the author defends his view that no selection should take place and that all roll calls should be used for the analysis. Another problem discussed is how to select a panel of countries. This selection depends upon the question studied, and on this basis the author indicates which countries should be represented in the panel, in order to study the position of the...Show moreThe position of a country in the General Assembly is defined as the whole of formal utterances of that country in the General Assembly in terms of pro or contra something or somebody. While ’position’ as such shows how pro or contra a country is, it is argued that it makes more sense to compare the position of one country with the positions of other countries. In the General Assembly a country can sponsor, speak or vote. It is argued that the best way to determine the position of a country is by using roll calls. The implications of selecting a number of roll calls for analysis — as is usually done — are discussed; the author defends his view that no selection should take place and that all roll calls should be used for the analysis. Another problem discussed is how to select a panel of countries. This selection depends upon the question studied, and on this basis the author indicates which countries should be represented in the panel, in order to study the position of the Netherlands with regard to the apartheid question. As to the problem of quantifying voting behavior, two techniques are distinguished, i.e. that of Alker and Russett (World Politics in the General Assembly, New Haven etc., 1965), and that of Lijphart ('The Analysis of Bloc Voting in the General Assembly: A Critique and a Proposal’, American Political Science Review, 57 (1963) and others who compare the percentual agreement between pairs of states. The implications of both techniques are discussed. The apartheid question is discussed against te background of these methodological studies. Of all countriesin the General Assembly to take a position on this question, the Western countries most approximated the South African position. The Netherlands took a middle-of-the-road position, showing more agreement with South Africa than for instance Denmark, Italy and the United States, and showing less agreement than Belgium, France and Great Britain.Show less

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Methodologie van positiebepaling in de Verenigde Naties door stemvergelijking