Organization For Economic Cooperation And Development (OECD) Essay ⋆ Political Science Essay Examples ⋆ EssayEmpire

The Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD) is a thirty-member international organization promoting economic liberalism and policy coordination amongst developed states. The OECD grew from the Organization for European Economic Cooperation (OEEC) established in 1947 to administer American and Canadian Marshall Plan contributions to European postwar reconstruction. In

1961, the OECD was created with an expanded membership and policy portfolio. Traditionally, membership included democratic states committed to economic liberalism: Western Europe, the United States, Japan, Canada, Australia, and New Zealand. In the 1990s, Mexico, Korea and a number of Eastern European states were added. In 2007, several states—including Chile, Israel, and Russia—entered formal membership negotiations. Brazil, China, India, and Indonesia have all been formally discussed as candidates for the next stage of enlargement.

A council comprised of representatives from member states and the European Commission governs the OECD. Council decisions, such as whether to support specific policy initiatives, are made by consensus. However, much of the real work is conducted by the more than two-thousand-member secretariat based in Paris. The secretariat provides most of the research and advice to the committees that oversee the OECD’s activities in specific policy areas. The committees can include representatives of member states, drawn from relevant public agencies; representatives invited from nonmember states; and representatives of other organizations.

The OECD’s founding convention gives it responsibility for researching virtually all areas of public policy, providing data and recommendations for best practices to member states based on policy experiences in other jurisdictions. In its more than 250 yearly publications, the OECD’s goal is invariably to promote domestic economic liberalism and to coordinate domestic policies supportive of economic integration. However, the OECD is not simply a research organization. The OECD pursues several strategies promoting the adoption of OECD-recommended policies by member states—making it a key site of global governance.

At one level, based on its well-respected research activities, the OECD uses peer-review processes to measure the success or failure of member states in adopting OECD-recommended polices. This surveillance is intended to move reticent nations forward with OECD-recommended norms. The OECD also uses its research credibility to try to influence the broader international agenda. For example, it issues agenda-setting reports prior to major international trade negotiations trying to help states identify the basis for successful agreements that will remove barriers to trade and investment. Finally, although understudied, in a number of areas, the organization has created formal agreements that member states are obliged to adopt. These can include treaties, or at a lower level, recommended guidelines and models promoting standards for policy coordination.

While the OECD’s policy portfolio is wide ranging, major areas of focus include social policy, primarily relating to education and employment; economic policy, particularly areas in which successful international markets require policy coordination; and issues relating to international finance. Indeed, the OECD’s activities in promoting policy coordination of international taxation to avoid disputes amongst states, and thereby reduce the risks involved in international finance, are often cited as one of the more successful areas of OECD activity.

Bibliography:

Henderson, David. “The Role of the OECD in Liberalising International Trade and Capital Flows.” World Economy 19, no. 1 (1996): 11–28.
Mahon, Rianne, and Stephen McBride. The OECD and Transnational
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Ohlin, Goran. “The Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development.” International Organization 22, no. 1 (1967): 231–243.
Schafer, Armin.“A New Form of Governance? Comparing the Open Method of Co-ordination to Multilateral Surveillance by the IMF and the OECD.” Journal of European Public Policy 13, no. 1 (January 2006): 70–88.
Webb, Michael C. “Defining the Boundaries of Legitimate State Practices: Norms,Transnational Actors and the OECD’s Project on Harmful Tax Competition.” Review of International Political Economy 11, no. 4 (2004): 787–827.
Woodward, Richard. “Global Monitor: The Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development.” New Political Economy 9, no. 1 (2004): 113–128.

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