Global Governance: The New Paradigm of the Information Era
Introduction
The following reflection explores the concept/institution of global governance from a skeptical/critical personal perspective. It departs from the analysis of the ambiguity of the term, exploring different authors' conceptualizations, and expands to the interpretation of diverse approaches. Following a sort of query logic, the present paper calls into question the reason and/or purpose of governance: What the institution/category called governance is intended for? Why is it on the international agenda? Since the concept/institution of governance is intimately intertwined with categories such as information - to promote a global public sphere - and collaboration - to encourage cooperation among states - special attention will be paid to its similitude with the process of globalization. Finally, as a way of concluding, a couple of final statements will be made to promote criticism and academic reflection about the subject matter.
A concept that matters
In the contemporary academic debate about world politics "global governance" is everywhere.[1] Whether it is or isn't a natural consequence of globalization, authors have neither a clear concept nor a uniform definition of what governance is. According to Lawrence Finkelstein, "we say "governance" because we don't really know what to call what is going on."[2] Truth be told, experts have been trying to define a complex phenomenon by offering a mere account of regularities and providing a pragmatic description of the aspects that best suit their sphere of interest. In this regard, the World Bank offers a definition based on the way authority is exercised to effectively implement its prescriptions.[3] On their part, Adrienne Heritier[4] and Oliver Treib[5] present conceptualizations that refer to modes of political steering to coordinate actions (on the base of an institutionalized set or system of rules) and suggest that governance is more than government, but it still seems rather hierarchically structured.[6] Despite of the vast conceptualization efforts, Tomas Weiss has observed that the ambiguity of the term still remains: "Many academics and international practitioners employ 'governance' to connote a complex set of structures and processes, both public and private, while more popular writers tend to use it synonymously with 'government'."[7] In fact, most of the experts have remained indifferent to find consensus on the definition of governance. Instead, they have defined the institution from various different perspectives and approaches which emphasize categories such as "interaction", "collective regulation", "governing", "collective action", "out-puts/results", and "exercise of authority"[8] Based on the allegations above stated and considering that concepts are the most basic tool that political science has at its disposal to develop research and formulate theories, the shortage related to the concept of governance seems to be and will remain the most challenging issue for the analysis and evaluation of contemporary world politics.
By the means of Governance
The era of the information and network state[9] has been preceded by two major events: the implosion of a bipolar world and the rising and implementation of globalization. The latter was foreseen as the world's placebo, a sort of magnificent formula to alleviate humankind's problems.
A very comprehensive definition of globalization is provided by Manuel Castells who conveniently quoted Ulrich Beck and Monroe Price remarking that not everything or everyone is globalized, but the global networks that structure the planet affect everything and everyone, connecting everything that is valuable.[10]
The fact is that most of the global south[11] perceives globalization as a sort of market fundamentalism, which at the present time, is struggling to survive and tries to reinvent itself under a new global category called global governance. Using "global issues" and the alleged decreased ability of national states to manage the world's problems on a global scale, global governance seems to be on its rise with a different set of priorities and new goals to alleviate world's major problems. Indeed, the management of the environment, the globalization of human rights, the imperative to bring social justice for the planet at large, and global security[12] are some of the reasons/excuses that have been set/brought to the global public sphere[13] trying to find a global common ideational ground.
However, according to my personal perception, based on the experience gathered at the UN-Permanent Forum for Indigenous Issues, and disregarding global governance's practicality and/or well intentioned agenda, I consider the term/institution ('global governance') a loaded concept/category. As Dingwerth and Pattberg argued, "the concept is often used to denote a specific political program, expressing either a normative perspective on how political institutions should react to the reduced steering capacity of national political systems or a critical perspective that refers to global governance as a hegemonic discourse.[14]
Conclusions
1) Theoretically, it seems that globalization and governance share the same principles and values and they both have collaboration among the states at their core. However, the global south is still waiting for the benefits/advantages that such collaboration was supposed to bring to their developing processes.
2) A conceptualization of governance, if valid, must take into consideration its four constitutive elements: 1) system of rule, 2) levels or dimensions of human activity, 3) pursuit of goals through coordination, and 4) transnational repercussions.
3) The skepticism of the present approach, towards the implementation of global governance, rests on the still-unsolved contradictions/crisis that the globalization process brought to the international arena such as: a) identity crisis, b) economic crisis, c) security crisis, and d) revival of nationalism.
4) As Rosenau stated: "There is no single organizing principle on which global governance rests, no emergent order around which communities and nations are likely to converge. Global governance is the sum of myriad - literally millions of - control mechanism driven by different histories, goals, structures, and processes (I would add interests)… In terms of governance, the world is too disaggregated for grand logics that postulate a measure of global coherence"[15]
[1] Digwerth Klaus and Philipp Pattberg, Global Governance as a Perspective on World Politics, Lynne Rienner Publishers, Boulder Co, US, 2006, page 185.
[2] Finkelstein Lawrence, What is Global Governance?, Global Governance 1, Edition no.3, 1995, page 368.
[3] Dr. Steven Livingston and Nagar Na'ama, Media and International Relations: Organizing Global Governance, International Relations 2012, Freie University of Berlin, Germany, page 3.
[4] Heritier A, New Modes of Governance in Europe: Policy Making Without Legislating? In: A. Heritier (ed): Common Goods: Reinventing European and International Governance, Lanham: Rowman and Lttlefield.
[5] Treib Oliver, Hoger Bahr, and Gerda Falkner, Modes of Governance: A Note Towards Conceptural Clarification, In: European Governance Papers, November 17, 2005.
[6] Dr. Steven Livingston and Nagar Na'ama, Page 3.
[7] Weiss G. Thomas, Governance, Good Governance and Global Governance: Conceptual and Actual Challenges, Third World Quaterly 21, no. 5, 2000, page 195.
[8] Digwerth Klaus and Philipp Pattberg, Global Governance as a Perspective on World Politics, Lynne Rienner Publishers, Boulder Co, US, 2006, page 188.
[9] Castells Manuel, The New Public Sphere: Global Civil Society, Communication Networks, and Global Governance, SAGE Publisher, The ANNALS of the American Academy of Political and Social Science, U.S., 2008, page 88.
[10] Castells Manuel, The New Public Sphere: Global Civil Society, Communication Networks, and Global Governance, page 81.
[11] United Nations Development Program Report, Global North and Global South, www.un.org/millenniumgoals/pdf/MDG_FS_8_EN
[12] Nye Joseph, The Paradox of American Power: Why the world's only superpower can't go it alone, Oxford University Press, New York, U.S. 2002.
[13] Castells Manuel, The New Public Sphere: Global Civil Society, Communication Networks, and Global Governance, page 78.
[14] Digwerth Klaus and Philipp Pattberg, Global Governance as a Perspective on World Politics, Lynne Rienner Publishers, Boulder Co, US, 2006, page 189.
[15] Rosenau James N., Governance in the twenty First Century, Approaches to Global Governance Theory, Albany: SUNY Press, 1999, page 295-296.
