ABSTRACT
Most observers of Council decision-making agree that committees of national experts and diplomats play a crucial role in the operation of the Council. Given that national officials are not directly controlled or accountable to their domestic parliaments, the involvement of bureaucrats in legislative decision-making of the Council raises important questions about the democratic legitimacy of Council decisions. Given that much of the negotiations in the Council occur in its committees, studying the role and influence of these committees is also important for our scientific understanding of how decisions are reached in the Council, as well as for explaining the speed and the outcome of Council decision-making. Despite the vital role of committees in ensuring the functioning of the Council, the extent to which these committees actually dominate Council decision-making has so far received scant attention in the literature. The goal of this study was to shed more light on the important but so far largely neglected topic of committee decision-making in the Council.
