Supranational dynamics in international bureaucracies

This chapter investigates how supranational dynamics are played out among civil servants working in the bureaucracies of the World Trade Organization (WTO), the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) and the Commission. Supranationalism has been studied for a long time, particularly in connection with the establishment and development of the institutions of the European Community/European Union (EC/EU). The study of the supranational dynamic is focused on the individual civil servants' orientation towards the international organisation in which they are serving, and on international institutions' capacity for shaping and changing individual loyalties, identities, beliefs and behaviours. The chapter explores civil servants' enactment of supranational roles in international bureaucracies. It is useful to relate the supranational dynamic to classical models of bureaucracies: the models of representative bureaucracy and Weberian bureaucracy. The chapter concludes by summing up and analysing the empirical observations with respect to the occurrence of supranational dynamics.