The Un Security Council Veto Power Effects On Democratic Principles In 21st Century

By Author: Henry Ford
Total Articles: 189
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The world organizations have been in the forefront on keeping the international peace since the end of the WWII. The international peace was a fundamental factor which led to the establishment of the United Nations. Thus, the formation of the UN was to ensure peace prevailed to bringing certain positive changes in different sphere of human life. The United Nations was envisioned as peace keeping body through the practice of justice, liberty and equality. However, the negotiation struggle in the formation of the United Nations body just after the WWII was evident that all nations were not equality treated on membership process, voting and the commanding power in decision-making in the organization (Mansfield and Snyder, 1995). The United Nation Security Council was bestowed with the veto powers, which are only privileges enjoyed by only five permanent members of the UN members. Though there was resistance on bestowing the veto powers on the UN Security Council at that time, the abolishment of veto powers of the Council has now been a heated debate concerning international relations. There are a number of scholarly material, research ...
... and press sources which evidently posits that UN Security Council has failed in achieving its goals and mission from the use veto power. This is has triggered our interest of understanding the effects of the veto powers in the current generation of the 21st century in bringing international corporation based on democratic principles (Domke,1988).
The practices of veto power in the United Nations organization is only shared among five victorious power states (Naidu, 2005). As result of this nature of power distribution, there is absence of power balancing among the member states. This acts as a contradiction on the principles of equal sovereignty. In the practice of sovereign equality, all participating members should have equal powers and opportunities in the decision-making; however, this has been challenged by the unlimited veto powers of the UN Security Council. The UN Security Council thus being biased on the governing of the permanent five members, it has paid much attention on the foreign policies majorly on political bases rather than on humanity needs. The political power ideology has however faded away with the increase of economic power in other nations besides the permanent five. Despite the recognition of the economic power increase in other nations like Japan, Germany, and South Africa among others, the permanent five members incorporated them to have permanent seats in the last decade of the 20th century. The denial of the veto powers however was a vivid indication of the sovereign inequality of the different states.
There has been a shift of the power identity in the 20th century, whereby most of the participants in National Corporation have depended on the strategy of foreign policy to advance their national interest. The incorporated states of the UN members are said to be pillars of enhancing global cooperation. The unequal power distribution among the members however hinders the advancement of the unity among the member states. With such unequal state’s powers and poor representations, the member states have less recognition of the UN Security council members as the key controllers of the world cooperation (Bailey, 1994).
The cooperation between the states rather than organization of states is the current strategy that has been adopted which is viewed to bring increased global cooperation and agreement. The transition to the state cooperation and agreement has been adopted as a respond to the attempt of increasing human freedom and liberty (Dixon, 1993). The inter-state cooperation and agreement eliminates the unlimited veto power style by having an emphasis on negotiated decision making process and fair representation for which each state member has equal opportunities to contribute in the decision-making debate. The UN Security Council has therefore attempted to advance the state interest of political Power rather than advancing the global interests on policies of nation’s cooperation. The veto powers on UN Security Council are impediment to the attempt of reconciliation of matters global interest including policies of international importance. The emerging failure on the passing of the various policies on the cooperation of the development of nuclear weapons exemplifies the effect of veto power (Schweigman, 2001).
The veto power of the UN Security Council has diminished with globalization on matters of global cooperation. The pursuing of national interest in the 20th century has decreased due to the increased cooperation brought about information technology. As the UN Security Council endeavor to make reconciliation on civil conflicts based on their interest to maintain strong economic ties for the member states, large number of people are still being oppressed (William, 1994). This reflects the unresponsive nature of the UN Security Council in the neo-liberalization processes. This increasing number of the oppressed individuals under the siege of civil wars are depicts the potency of the veto power to have great influence in changing the world cooperation (Ramcharan, G. 2002).
Power and democracy are two but opposing factors of leadership. The overwhelming of power is detrimental as its depletion from the governing body. As such consideration, the veto powers for the UN Security Council play significant part in the conflict control but its inclusion for only a few nations contributions to the global view of discrimination. The determining factor of useful power is its acceptability. This gives it the base of its legitimacy on its application. Thus, the veto power of the UN Security Council should first be accepted by the members before it’s applied to the targets. The practices of veto powers on instilling peace and cooperation among member countries has been difficult due to the use of undemocratic procedure by the UN Security Council. It is argued that most states in the UN body have no regard on democratic means or processes in settling conflicts through the UN organization as long as the five members have the privilege of the veto power (Nils Petter, 1995).
The veto power legitimacy on human rights and democracy is view as weak. Considering the Iran’s president comments on the UN Security Council body, the veto powers not only yield to discrimination of the nations, but it also has got paramount impact on racism. The veto powers permits the UN Security council to respond or not to respond to matters on human conflicts. Racism and discrimination of the UN Security Council a rises from the fact that ignorance is form of discrimination or racism. The failure for the UN Security Council to participate in the reconciliation process for some states is thus considered in term of racism and discrimination. Such ignorance for not supporting or contributing in the building peaceful nations is form of acts that mar the human rights of speech and expression. The separation of the UN Security Council from negations and reconciliation process cut the ties with other nations deterring the freedom for those being oppressed (Renz, 1997).
In order to advance democratic principles in the running of the UN Security Council, there should be establishment of the legitimacy of the veto power by all the member nations. This sets the foundation of power application. The United Nations Security Council would have to consider sharing of the powers so as to eliminate the unchecked power practices which violate human rights and freedom. This will entail partnering and cooperation with other nations to promote world wide organization in fight against dangerous weapons.

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