A growing number of scholars recognize that the secretariats of international organizations, referred to as international public administrations, have autonomous influence on global governance processes. An IPA’s authority is described as one of its main factors of influence. Defined as an asymmetrical social relationship based on recognition that enables actors to exert influence, authority is a central concept within the global governance literature. Hence, authority literature has, thus far, been based on traditional data and information, neglecting the presence and interaction of IPAs in OSNs such as Twitter. OSNs, however, have become important arenas for political actors to exchange information and opinions with other stakeholders and the public. To examine the digital authority of IPAs within different policy fields, we use social network analysis. International policy regimes are structured as networks rather than as hierarchies. A social network perspective shifts the unit of analysis from individual actors to the relations between them and the overall network these relations constitute.

--

international public administration,international bureaucracy,digital authority,influence