Ineffective Institutions

http://www.nytimes.com/2008/02/08/world/europe/08russia.html?em&ex=1202619600&en=4fd5f4e87f134040&ei=5087%0A
^^ This article, "European Group Cancels Mission to Observe Russian Election, Citing Restrictions," details the Kremlin's refusal to allow the Office for Democratic Institutions and Human Rights to oversee its upcoming elections and is a decent example of realism in international relations. Realism bypasses institutions in its analyses of international relations because the theory dismisses institutions as too ineffective to be considered actors on the world stage. The UN and League alike are disregarded as actors, and given the Kremlin’s refusal to let the O.D.I.H.R. oversee its elections effectively throws the O.D.I.H.R. in the same basket.
As was said in class, institutions wield legitimacy only when powerful actors grant them legitimacy. As the League of Nations tanked when the U.S. only casually attended meetings throughout its existence and other powerful nations walked out (Japan), so too does the O.D.I.H.R. receive a blow to its legitimacy when the Kremlin bars it from carrying out its appointed duties in one of the more powerful nations in the world, headed by one of the more dubious ‘elected’ governments in the world.
The O.D.I.H.R. has as its purpose all of the typical, and as Liberal theorists argue, desirable features of a non-state institution: it provides monitoring of a state’s internal affairs, and is meant to facilitate a common definition of compliance with fair election standards. The two in theory add up to ‘lower transaction costs’ for the Kremlin– that is, if the Kremlin were interested in the fairness of its country’s elections. In practice, we see that institutions are only effective when they are desirable. They are rendered useless when they do not align with state interests.
Any subsequent trouble the O.D.I.H.R. may have in monitoring elections can be attributed to Russia’s defiance of its election monitors– and the silence other powerful actors, such as the U.S. maintain as the O.D.I.H.R. is rebuffed.