Within the study of world politics, one of the ways in which theorists have transcended state-centric analysis has been to couch it in terms of the ‘politics of Governance’ and the ‘politics of Resistance’. The logic of politics within this context is the competition and conflict between these two ‘blocs’. However, the case of the International Labour Organisation (ILO) challenges this dichotomy.

Within the discourse on development, there has been a fundamental intransigence of neo-liberal principles and attitudes to development. At the heart of this discourse, is a fundamental judgement about the ‘truth’ of human nature. Humans are innately stable, pre-determined entities that generally behave as autonomous, egoistic, utility maximisers. Thus with this ontological question answered the building of structures, be they financial or ones of governance, should be based upon allowing the subject to flourish within this system. At the heart of this is the emphasis of ‘le Politique’, the smooth economic running of things, over ‘la Politique’, the more philosophical debate about how we consider the ontological make-up of people, and if we can even do this.