Working for the World? National Representation in the United Nations Bureaucracy

International organizations (IOs) such as the World Bank and the World Health Organization are perhaps best understood as membership organizations, with their membership consisting of national governments. Thus, one of the most salient questions regarding IOs is how they represent national interests. Although a fair amount has been written about the explicitly representational bodies within IOs, such as the United Nations (UN) General Assembly, less attention has been paid to national representation within another critical component of these organizations: their bureaucracies. Thus, in order to help fill this gap in the literature on IOs, the present study applies the theoretical framework of representative bureaucracy to the case of national representation in the UN bureaucracy. The study employs a mixed methods approach to both identify the determinants of passive national representation and explore the potential for active national representation in the UN bureaucracy. The findings help to paint a more complete picture of national representation in the UN than has previously been available, deepening our understanding of the UN’s relationship with its membership.