Theoretical Framework

Abstract

Drawing on the Principal-Agent (PA) model, this chapter develops the argument that the Council is best characterised as a hybrid principal, exhibiting traits of both a collective and a multiplicity of principals. The application of this perspective has consequences for the conceptualisation of two key tenets of the PA model: control and information asymmetry. Unlike the traditional focus on the formal treaty-based mechanisms of control, a shift towards the continuous informal interactions between principal and agent is advocated. Similarly, this chapter proposes a focus on administrative capacity, rather than external negotiating context, as a source of information asymmetry. Once these concepts have been refined, the chapter introduces and contextualises the main hypothesis of this book.