Decisions in Negotiated Texts
Decisions
Decision-making is a cognitive process whereby an idea or a course of action is selected among several alternative possibilities. It is the process of identifying and choosing alternatives based on the values, preferences, and beliefs of the decision-maker. Every decision-making process results in a final choice, which may or may not prompt action.
A negotiation will reach its conclusions by taking decisions on the proposals that have been made by its members. These decisions will be on extremely specific proposals -- to accept or reject a particular piece of text from a draft of the document under discussion.
There can be a significant amount of strategy involved. Members of a negotiation may vote in favour of suggestions that they do not desire, in order to provide an opportunity to further debate it at another stage, or because they are accepting a compromise over a specific issue, or because they are willing to compromise on one issue in return for a compromise on another.
The order in which decisions are taken, and the context in which they are taken, is important in understanding why a particular decision was reached.
- What had been agreed up to that point already?
- What had already been rejected?
- What other suggestions had already been made but not yet resolved?
All of these questions, and more, help us to understand the outcomes of a negotiation.
Depending on the type of negotiation, decisions may be made on the basis of the votes of
In a convention / negotiated texts, decisions are made by:
- Voting on amendments and procedures
- Vote on specific decisions
What can I do with Quill?
Quill enables you to:
- understand the context in which particular votes are taken. For example: Connecticut Delegation's / voting details in the Convention
- have overviews that give a sense of the series of votes within a process of negotiation, that help to show how controversial particular decisions were or whether particular individuals won or lost particular votes
- identify the alliances and influence in this convention
- access summary statistics that help users to explore the alliances within a convention, or the influence of particular individuals and delegations