GLOBAL GOVERNANCE Amandio De Araujo Sarmento Dewinta Haryanti Hartanto Yudha Kurniawan.

GLOBAL GOVERNANCEAmandio De Araujo SarmentoDewinta HaryantiHartantoYudha Kurniawan

In the present period of rapid and extensive global change, the constitutions of national governments and their treaties have been undermined by the increasing demands and solidarity of ethnic and other subgroups. Although the concept of global governance is relatively new, many theories have been in place for some time.

In addition to the end of the Cold War, the debate on globalization has been an important source of the emergence of theories on global governance. Economic globalization, for one, leads to a power shift from state to market, which is an important factor contributing to the emergence of global governance.

Along with the globalization of economies, other changes became apparent, such as the surge of global social movements, the shrinking of political distances by microelectronic technologies, and the mushrooming of global interdependencies fostered by currency crisis, AIDS, and terrorism, all of which touch upon the subject of global governance. These centralizing and decentralizing dynamics have undermined the constitutions and treaties of national governments. Governments still operate as sovereign powers in a number of ways, but some of their authority has been relocated toward sub-national collectivities.

What is Governance?

Governance is thus a system of rules that are dependent on “inter-subjective” meanings as on formally sanctioned constitutions and charters or a system of rule that works only if the majority accepts it.

Is governance synonymous with government?

Governance is not synonymous with government. While governments perform activities that are backed by formal authority and monopolize police powers to insure the implementation of duly constituted policies, governance performs activities backed by shared goals that may or may not derive from legal and formally prescribed responsibilities which do not necessarily rely on police powers to overcome defiance and attain compliance.

What is Global Governance?

In the global context, global governance means “governance in the global arena,” referring to all the governance that occurs throughout the global order. Therefore, global governance implicitly indicates the global shift from statism to integration as well as the fragmentation of actors in the international arena. There is a possibility of a global transformation from the primacy of “government” to that of “governance.”

According to the Commission on Global Governance, which was established under the UN in 1995, global governance can be defined as “the sum of the many ways individuals and institutions, public and private, manage their common affairs.” It is “a continuing process through which conflicting or diverse interests may be accommodated and co-operative action may be taken.”

In another study, Leon Gordenker and Thomas Weiss define global governance as “efforts to bring more orderly and reliable responses to social and political issues that go beyond the capacities of states to address individually.” In other words, the term global governance reflects the current situation in which declining state power provides non-state actors with the capacity and opportunity to assert their interests.

In sum, global governance is a term adopted to account for the foregoing changes in the increasingly globalizing international arena in the post-Cold War era, underscoring the search for the co-existence of a wide variety of international actors without privileging any one specific actor, such as states.

Forms of Global GovernancePerhaps the greatest change, however, has been the growth of multilayered governance and the diffusion of political authority, with the role of the nation-state transformed by the development of regional trade blocs like the European Union, NAFTA, and ASEAN; the growing role of international bodies like the World Trade Organization, UN and NATO; the burgeoning network of transnational NGOs; and new norms and regulations of international and multilateral governance on issues ranging from trade to human rights and environmental protection. (Global Governance & Cosmopolitan Citizens, Pippa Norris).

Global Governance and Comopolitanism

The globalization of markets, governance and communications can strengthen a cosmopolitan orientation, broadening identities beyond national boundaries to a world community, and increasing awareness of the benefits of transnational collaboration within regional associations and international institutions.

BibliographyHewson, Martin and Timothy Sinclair. Approaches to Global Governance Theory (New York: State University of New York Press, 1999).Rosenau, James. “Governance, Order, and Change in World Politics,” in James Rosenau and Ernst-otto Czempiel (eds.), Governance without Government: Order and Change in World Politics (New York: Cambridge University Press, 1992).Rosenau, James. "Change, Complexity and Governance in Globalizing Space,” in Jon Pierre (ed.), Debating Governance (New York: Oxford University Press, 2000).