Global Governance Rolf Czeskleba-Dupont
Total Page：16
File Type：pdf, Size：1020Kb
Der Öffentliche Sektor - Forschungsmemoranden Global Governance Rolf Czeskleba-Dupont Intro ted as self-reliant growth, whereas the Triad's accu- mulation centres don't show a similar pattern. GLOBAL GOVERNANCE was less understood as an established fact in the sense of a radical globali- Regarding POLITICAL INTERRELATIONS it was zation thesis, but rather as a topic for critical discus- mentioned that there are divergent interpretations of sion as one level for possible multi-level governan- the question of a hegemonic power position within ce. the monopolar world of power politics. Although based upon an internal economy that was becoming This discussion was also structured by the three key- dependent not only upon the possibility to manipula- words CHALLENGES touching upon an analytical- te global financial flows (as it was since many ly grounded evaluation, COPING STRATEGIES years), but also more directly of sustaining very stressing the evaluating subject's normative reaso- large trade and balance of paymants deficits in rela- ning and IMPLEMENTATION PROBLEMS which tion to non-Western spaces e.g. in East Asia, the at any rate in the question of governance is focussing dominant circles in the U.S. still may expect an atti- upon the political dimension (in the litterature, these tude of not "reining in" a still hegemonic power. three dimensions of sustainability science have ear- Alternatively, the world is conceived of as being in a lier been discussed e.g. by Becker and Jahn 1999). state of dis-hegemony - perhaps a lasting phenome- The discussion permitted only a tentative identifica- non, until new constellations of economic and politi- tion of relevant issues. What follows, is a subjective cal power eventually might emerge and consolidate. synthesis of what the topics might mean, seen from Although this would happen in a real chaos of tran- a theoretical platform that has to be further elabora- sition, one has to be aware of this possibility becau- ted. se it opens not only for individuals, but also collecti- vely more space of maneouver in the direction of a multipolar world with new and shifting alliances. Clearly, the EU with its emphasis upon multilateral 1. CHALLENGES diplomacy has its chance in this scenario. The discussion took off from the starting assumption As a COROLLARY, we have to transgress any idea that the present state of the world-economy is one of of simple or expanded reproduction of the political- global interrelatedness. The question was raised in economic state of the world as merely following a connection with the economic level, as to what kind cyclical pattern of world-economical conjunctures or of process(es) was (were) characterizing the field of "ensuing"/"parallel" hegemonic cycles (perhaps globalizing power relations and their institutional including a "new American century"). Implications settings. GLOBAL GOVERNANCE was, thus, for a developmental account of, what we call globa- understood both in the phenomenal sense of the lizing power relations and their institutional setting, direct political processes, but also as posing a chal- can, then, only be delimited by taking IRREVERSI- lenge to our understanding of, how economic and BLE TRENDS into account that might reach their political processes are interrelated in world develop- (perhaps, as Immanuel Wallerstein suggests, asymp- ments. totical) limits. Regarding ECONOMIC DEVELOPMENT, it was As a case in point, the incorporation into the world- argued that the long-term downswing of the world- economic division of labour of new sources of economy dating from the beginning of the 1970's labour power and/or new sources of fossil energy still was discernible e.g. in substantial production were mentioned. The seemingless endless trend of overcapacities. Schematic expectations from e.g. commodification could be added. The near approa- long-wave research assuming cycles of 40-60 years ching of those, ultimately global limits can be seen of duration obviously are too narrow in time - and as one of the causes for serious structural problems less obvious in space: if there are any signs of more and challenges at all levels of governance, and this than national upswings, they rather seem to be might evolve to become the terminal crisis of the "bundled" in non-Western space (perhaps India, historical system itself (as Immanuel Wallerstein China and Brazil) showing what might be interpre- expects). Heft 1-2/2005 39 Global Governance The recurrent EXPANSIONS of the historical capi- ned by Jari, a contingency table was drawn up that talist world-system with its origins in Western Euro- combined two dimensions of respecting or not pe 500 years ago have within three instances of respecting: (a) ecolocical limits; and (b) civil and world-hegemony created a special sort of "meta-geo- political rights. Disrespect of ecological limits as in graphy" (Peter J.Taylor) or "spatial fixes" (D.Har- radical trade liberalization of the Washington con- vey, B.Jessop). The latest expansion lacking a clear sensus type was seen as moving from initially (after hegemon is reverting to the initial pattern of a "space World War II) being combined with respect for civil of flows" (Taylor) which is only partially mapped. and political rights to their systematical disrespect However, the "emergent new markets" being desi- e.g. in connection with an extended war on terror gned by transnational authors, that lay the program- (instead of a wiser security policy), but also in eco- mes of expansion, and implemented by institutional nomically enforced structural adjustment progam- actors can be seen as vectors trying to establish new mes eroding local democracy and economies. Under spatial fixes in order to assure the continuity of accu- the pressure of (relative) resource scarcity, this might mulation imperatives. As symptoms of globalization, lead to an outright resource dictatorship as an extre- they can be read as "the ultimate tension between mely alientated and one-sided way of acknowled- space and place" (Taylor and Flint 2000) by trying to ging ecolocial limits. Only if this is done more con- generalize an inherently ungeneralizable pattern of sistently based upon a democratized sustainability Western mass consumption (the cultural innovation science and with due respect for civil and political of the historical American hegemony) and - ecologi- rights e.g. in the form of democratically founded cally untenable - mass production. This dominant sustainability governance strategies this would mean project can only forcefully be propagated, because it the emergence of an adequate coping strategy. entails the generalization of an apartheid system of In contrast to the challenging trends, see above, of rising unequality up to the level of "global apar- "limitless" proliferation of unsustainable patterns of theid"(Amoroso 2003). mass consumption and mass production into the last corners of the world being fuelled by purely mone- ADDENDUM tary approaches ro re-regulating economies at a glo- A fundamental challenge for the very concept of glo- bal level, sustainable strategies have, then, to contri- bal governance lies, however, still at the level of bute to a twofold transition: (a) to sustainable labour national policies. In order to focus on this, Amoroso organization al around the world, perhaps underpin- and Gallina 2002 argue to reject the acceptance of ned by nationally instituting minimum levels of any unilinear thought of globalization and propose to basic income for communities in due regard of their differentiate it into movements of internationaliza- own strategies of subsistence; and (b) to sustainable tion instead (19). Their argument is centrally impor- technical and organizational modes of locally trans- tant for our discussion of sustainable multi-level forming energy and materials in exchange with natu- governance: "The national state is still at the cross- ral environments. roads between the perception of and needs of com- Insight into the necessity of such a complex societal munities and the external demands posed by proces- development lead in our discussion to a realization ses of internationalization. The sustainability of that there must be principally two steps in every these two levels of social organization can still only coping strategy. More limited steps towards REGIO- be mediated and governed by national states. To NAL INTEGRATION based upon centralized coo- escape into localism or to jump into globalization peration of nation states within concentric circles of will result in the death of the community"(ibid.). enlargement have to be supplemented and deepened Neither economic nor social cohesion could, thus, be by real cooperation of multicentric "circles of soli- maintained, if the defeat of the national state was darity" (Bruno Amoroso) with bases in regions of accepted as an established fact and as point of depar- long standing such as - in the European case - the ture. Baltic Sea, the Danube, the Mediterranean incl. North Africa and the Middle East etc. Instead of any "developmentalist" approach thinking 2. COPING STRATEGIES in terms of uni-linear development within nation-sta- The analytically grounded question of challenges tes to catch up with "forerunners" it was mentioned from global governance was, then, turned into a in the discussion that one has to think of multilinear more normative discussion about coping strategies. processes of leap-frogging. These are more apt in a With reference to the TERRA 2000 project, mentio- chaotic environment