ABSTRACT
This paper proposes a new type of ‘executive body’ for the United Nations – the integrally-elected team. Such a team would be elected by joint vote of the General Assembly and the directly-elected Popular Second Assembly (if the latter had been formed). The team would be elected integrally, i.e. its members would not be voted for separately as individuals, but instead elected all together as a team, standing in competition with any other candidate teams which contested the election. It is argued that such a team would be more effective and integrated than other types of executive body, more subject to democratic control, and more responsive to the different countries, parties and groups in the two Assemblies which had elected it. It is envisaged that eventually a number of such teams would be elected, each with responsibility for a different function, such as dealing with aspects of the world environmental crisis, negotiating disarmament, peacekeeping, economic functions, etc. It is expected that the use of elected teams would allow urgently needed expansion of the powers of the UN into areas of action with which the UN’s present structure cannot competently deal, and that it would allow this to be done with greater safety, providing more effective democratic control over these functions than is possible with the present UN structure.
The paper also proposes that the nations’ votes in the General Assembly should be weighted by population and to some extent by GNP, and formulae for this are discussed.
