International public administration on the tip of the tongue: language as a feature of representative bureaucracy in the Economic Community of West African States

Recent scholarship shows increasing interest in gender, ethnic or national representation within regional and international organizations. In contrast, language as a criterion of has rarely been scrutinized. We argue that this constitutes an important oversight for two reasons: (1) is identity marker; (2) regimes public administrations can uniquely address representativeness relative to both member states groups citizens. Our article explores the Economic Community West African States, pursues twofold objective: first, it extends applicability representative bureaucracy theory issue language; and, second, broadens scope studies by providing first study on prominent organization. As such, we develop avenues future research other Points practitioners The particular relevance managers multilingual Organizations tend overlook role impact languages their functioning, often considering them technicality. Taking example argues linguistic are performance legitimacy organization terms acceptance citizens its states.