[nath]

In true Tallesin-style, here is the BBC article

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/world/americas/4362709.stm

Poll shows backing for UN reform

There is overwhelming popular support for the UN to be reformed, according to a BBC World Service poll among the citizens of 23 countries.
They favoured a more powerful UN and backed the idea of adding Germany, India, Japan and Brazil to the organisation's Security Council.
Most wanted the Security Council to be able to override the veto power of the permanent members.
Just over 23,500 people were questioned for the survey, completed in January.
The proposal to expand the UN Security Council to include new permanent members was supported by a majority in 22 of the 23 countries.

'A stronger UN'

These included majority backing in four of the current permanent members, the US (70%), Britain (74%), France (67%) and China (54%).
Results suggest that the tight control of the United Nations by a few countries may soon be history

Polling was conducted from 15 November 2004 to 5 January 2005.
In eight of the countries the sample was limited to major metropolitan areas.
The margin of error is between 2.5 and 4 points depending on the country.

The poll was conducted for the BBC by Worldscan.


Interesting given that the US administration seems to have been generally hostile towards the UN over the last few years. Could the results of this survey have been distorted by the limiting of the sample to major metropolitan areas? Or is the US public more inclined to place trust in the UN than their elected representatives?

[Millennium]

Personally, I'd rather see the Security Council done away with completely, and run everything through the General Assembly. This would be far less efficient, but I consider inefficiency in this sort of thing to be a fairly important safeguard.

[Buckaroo]

I have a hunch that if they have any numbers from the US that say anything other than reducing or doing away with the UN, that the poll was BS.

Absolutely everyone I know, want the UN to be done away with. Personally, I'd prefer it be reduced to less than 10% of it's current size and power.

[OreoCookie]

Originally posted by Millennium:
Personally, I'd rather see the Security Council done away with completely, and run everything through the General Assembly. This would be far less efficient, but I consider inefficiency in this sort of thing to be a fairly important safeguard.

I doubt that this would improve the situation at all.
The security council doesn't represent the current power distribution in the world (Japan and Germany as #2 and #3 economies as well as India (among other countries) do not have a permanent seat).

I don't think any of the countries with permanent seat would want to give up their veto power, keeping this two-class system. Give 'em more power, as long as they don't do anything against `my' interests (this obviously applies to all members, among others Russia, China, and the US). But the UN will only work if all members accept its powers and enforce it, even though they may not agree with every decision.

[nath]

Originally posted by Buckaroo:
I have a hunch that if they have any numbers from the US that say anything other than reducing or doing away with the UN, that the poll was BS. Absolutely everyone I know, want the UN to be done away with.

The organisation and their methods seem fairly transparent from their website (linked to in the OP). And the margin of error is clearly stated. Do you have any reason to believe the figures are 'BS' other than anecdote?

[Millennium]

Originally posted by Buckaroo:
I have a hunch that if they have any numbers from the US that say anything other than reducing or doing away with the UN, that the poll was BS.

Absolutely everyone I know, want the UN to be done away with. Personally, I'd prefer it be reduced to less than 10% of it's current size and power.

Believe me, I agree with you. At the same time, that isn't likely to happen. Given that, eliminating the Security Council would at least take out the most fundamentally-flawed part of the whole deal.

The UN has worked quite well as a sort of central point for organizing multi-national projects and such. As a governing body, however, its track record is abysmal, which was frankly predictable from the very beginning.