Aid, Arms or Autocrats: Explaining the Voting Preferences of Developing Countries at the United Nations | Chris Wheeler

Despite their continued effort to bargain collectively on behalf of developing countries, the G77 group at the United Nations consistently fail to coordinate their voting positions. With 134 of the UN’s 193 member states in the G77, it has the potential to dominate the UN General Assembly, but it has become so disparate that many now question the logic of the group’s existence moving forward. Using ideal point estimates, I analyze the predictors of G77 countries’ individual voting preferences in the UN General Assembly to understand the cause of growing division and disunity within the group. I find that voting preferences for individual countries within the G77 are determined mainly by variation in democracy and human rights. It provides new insights into both the dynamics of the UN General Assembly and the cooperation among developing countries.