In this theoretical text, I present the argument that the dominant governmental mode of interest representation in major international institutions is in important respects dysfunctional. Such a mechanism for the channelling of national interests may be appropriate as long as there is little divergence in the interests of the important societal groups within the states. If the interests of domestic stakeholders conflict with each other, however, the representation of all relevant domestic interests through governments becomes unfeasible. To be able to effectively participate in decision-making in the international institutions, government representatives would need to decide which of the conflictive domestic interests to defend and which to sacrifice. For simple domestic political reasons, however, they will not have the incentives to make such decisions. Consequently, the conflicts across domestic societal interests may prevent the government representatives from taking active part in the political processes in global governance bodies.
