Pathologies of Path-Dependency? The ILO and the Challenges of 'New Governance'.

This paper deals with strategic and organizational change in the International Labour Organization in the last twenty years. It focuses on efforts to incorporate elements of the ‘new governance’ model, such as the shift from standards expressed as detailed legal norms to ‘soft law,’ the active involvement of civil society organizations other than trade unions and employer associations in regulatory activities, and the introduction of quantitative indicators of compliance with labor standards. It argues that the ILO leadership’s efforts have been waylaid by the ILO’s corporatist structure, which gives employer associations and trade unions a veto power on all policy developments at a time in which these actors are increasingly unable to agree on concrete policy measures, and wonders whether such corporatist structure is the most appropriate for the mission the ILO has set for itself, that of providing ‘decent work for all.’