Singing together or apart? : comparing policy agenda dynamics within international organizations

Abstract

Are there substantial differences between the issues an IO's decision-making body agrees upon and the issues the organization's administrative body is dealing with in practice? : Or are member states and the administration singing (to) the same tune? : To tackle these questions, this article explores agenda congruence in three single-purpose organizations using methods of quantitative text analysis. The explorative empirical analysis shows that both change dynamics and agenda congruence exhibit substantial variation across the organizations. The findings suggest that agenda congruence decreases with the degree of authority delegated to the administration and the extent to which the administration tries to identify relevant policy issues from within the administration. Given that the results are well in line with what dominant theoretical accounts would predict, both concept and measurement are considered promising additions to the study of IOs and international public administrations.