The United Nations System and the Process of Political Articulation of Local Authorities as a Global Actor¹

Abstract

The recent creation of United Cities and Local Governments (UCLG), an organization of local authorities of universal scope, is the culmination of the emerging process of a new political actor on the international scene. The article describes and analyses some aspects of the interaction between this global political actor-in-the-making and the United Nations (UN) system. The theoretical question it addresses is how the new global actor has — even if partially — achieved its objectives, given its limited power resources and the opposition of other (apparently) more powerful actors: the central governments that run the UN system. Drawing on the literature on the foreign activities of subnational governments, as well as on the literature on transnational actors and the creation of global norms, the proposed explanation highlights the “mixed actor” (partially sovereignty-bound, partially sovereignty-free) character of subnational governments acting internationally.

Keywords:
Transnational actors; Local authorities; United Nations; Habitat