United Nations
Many authors have argued that the United Nations suffers from a democratic deficit, because it lacks a body of directly elected representatives. The UN Parliamentary Assembly has been proposed as a way of ameliorating this deficit. However, even the creation of such an organ would not affect the great power veto in the UN Security Council, under which important UN decisions can be vetoed by China, France, Russia, the United Kingdom or the United States. Reform of the UN Security Council through amendments to the United Nations Charter could change this, but such reform would itself be subject to the great power veto.
Read more about this topic: Democratic Deficit
Famous quotes containing the words united nations, united and/or nations:
“The heroes of the world community are not those who withdraw when difficulties ensue, not those who can envision neither the prospect of success nor the consequence of failure—but those who stand the heat of battle, the fight for world peace through the United Nations.”
—Hubert H. Humphrey (1911–1978)
“In the United States, it is now possible for a person eighteen years of age, female as well as male, to graduate from high school, college, or university without ever having cared for, or even held, a baby; without ever having comforted or assisted another human being who really needed help. . . . No society can long sustain itself unless its members have learned the sensitivities, motivations, and skills involved in assisting and caring for other human beings.”
—Urie Bronfenbrenner (b. 1917)
“Sometimes we think of the nations lying asleep,
Curled blindly in impenetrable sorrow,
And then the thought confounds us with its strangeness.”
—Edwin Muir (1887–1959)