The politicization of UNESCO World Heritage decisi

Authors: Enrico Bertacchini Claudia Liuzza Lynn Meskell Donatella Saccone

Publish Date: 2016/05/14

Volume: 167, Issue: 1-2, Pages: 95-129

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Abstract

The purpose of the UNESCO World Heritage Convention is to protect the global merit good of cultural and natural heritage of outstanding universal value for humanity Many observers however have suggested that this international organization is subject to politicization as the selection process of sites on the World Heritage List is increasingly driven by countries’ political influence and national strategic interests This article explores this possibility quantitatively by analyzing a unique dataset containing information from the summary records of the UNESCO World Heritage Committee’s sessions over the 2003–2012 period Focusing on the difference between technical experts’ recommendations and Committee final decisions on new additions to the List our empirical analysis addresses four main theoretical questions i Does the World Heritage Committee follow the advisory bodies’ recommendations for the evaluation of heritage sites ii Does Committee membership or size of national delegations influence the addition of sites to the List or an upgrade of the initial technical evaluations iii Is the Committee’s decision regarding the selection of World Heritage sites driven by a country’s political and economic power iv Do close political and economic relationships between countries influence Committee members’ behavior The paper contributes to Public Choice literature on international organizations by providing new evidence on the role of political and economic interests in decision making concerning global merit goodsWe thank four anonymous referees and the participants to the European Workshop of Applied Cultural Economics and to the annual meeting of the European Public Choice Society for their insightful comments and suggestions We would like also to thank our colleagues at the World Heritage Center ICOMOS ICCROM and the IUCN as well as the many national delegations who have taken time to meet with us Lynn Meskell would like to acknowledge Keble College Oxford University where she was Senior Research Visitor and the American Academy in Rome where she was Senior Scholar in Residence Her fieldwork was also supported under the Australian Research Councils Discovery scheme The Crisis in International Heritage Conservation in an Age of Shifting Global Power DP140102991 Claudia Liuzza wishes to acknowledge fieldwork support from the FranceStanford Center for Interdisciplinary Studies The Europe Center The Center for Philanthropy and Civic Society the Freeman Spogli Institute for International Studies at Stanford University and the Stanford Archaeology Center

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