The UN Secretary-General and Norm Entrepreneurship: Boutros Boutros-Ghali and Democracy Promotion

This article argues that the secretary-general of the United Nations is in many respects in a strong position to engage in “norm entrepreneurship.” However, he must constantly balance the desire to forward particular principled ideas with the need to maintain the support of the member states and to act within the organization's (and his own) mandate. Examined here are the attempts made by Boutros Boutros-Ghali to promote a norm of democratic governance, with particular emphasis on the importance of the ways in which he strategically “framed” that concept. It is argued that although his democracy-promotion activities were not an unqualified success—and indeed some of the limitations on the secretary-general's capacity for norm building are highlighted—they nevertheless had a real and lasting impact on the organization.