Global policy is strongly determined by groupings of a small number of self-selected governments or of their leaders and advisers, whether within formal frameworks such as the United Nations Security Council or within more informal groupings. Such groupings tend to maintain their distance from more widely representative bodies, informing them of decisions rather than consulting with them. Members may prefer to divert resources to such bodies rather than increase their participation in larger groupings, thus increasing the effectiveness of the former at the expense of the latter.
In addition to the 5 permanent members of the Security Council, such groupings include: Group of 5 (Ministers of Finance of most industrialized countries), occasionally extending its membership to form the Group of 7, or to form the Group of 10. The Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development is an institutionalized grouping of the most industrialized countries. More informally there exist such groups as the Group of 33, the Bilderberg Group, and the Trilateral Commission, all of which are especially concerned with the contained development of industrialized countries.
A primary role of such groupings is to provide constructive leadership for the world socio-political system, avoiding the confusion associated with inconclusive debates within arenas in which more governments are represented.