Participation and voting outcomes in committees: Evidence from the ILO

Although many international organisation are formally built on the principle of „one country―one vote“, a lack of representativeness in decision-making may give a subgroup of members disproportionate influence on the organisation’s policies. Using data on participation and voting in 51 decision-making committees of the International Labour Organization (ILO), we do find a bias in voting outcomes due to committee composition. It has also been argued (Osborne et al., American Economic Review 2000) that voters with extreme preferences may self-select into voting committees. We suggest a procedure to test for this prediction. Controlling for characteristics, there is no indication that governments with extreme preferences are drawn disproportionately into ILO committees. JEL-Classification: D 72, D 78, J 80