DISCUSSION PAPER WISSENSCHAFTSZENTRUM BERLIN FÜR SOZIALFORSCHUNG SOCIAL SCIENCE RESEARCH CENTER BERLIN SP IV 2008-304 Global Social and Civil Entrepreneurs: An Answer to the Poor Performance of Global Governance?1 Tine Stein2 1 Paper presented at the Annual Meeting of the American Political Science Association, held on 28-31 August 2008, in Boston, Massachusetts. 2 Email:
[email protected] Tine Stein y Global Social and Civil Entrepreneurs ii ZITIERWEISE z CITATION Tine Stein Global Social and Civil Entrepreneurs: An Answer to the Poor Performance of Global Governance? Discussion Paper SP IV 2008-304, Wissenschaftszentrum Berlin für Sozialforschung 2008 Wissenschaftszentrum Berlin für Sozialforschung Reichpietschufer 50, 10785 Berlin, Federal Republic of Germany Tel.: +49/30/25491-0 • Fax: +49/30/25491-684 Email:
[email protected] • Internet: http://www.wzb.eu/ Tine Stein y Global Social and Civil Entrepreneurs iii Abstract In recent years a new type of political actor has become increasingly important— cosmopolitan individuals acting transnationally in support of the rights and well-being of their “fellow citizens of the world.” The emerging transnational political awareness of private individuals might be seen as a consequence of the poor performance of global governance by international organizations which have been unable to find convincing solutions to global inequality. In response to this failure, individuals like Bono, Al Gore, Muhammad Yunus and Bill Gates mobilize their specific resources, namely, publicity, ideas, and money, to find solutions to international societal prob- lems. These actors often function directly as “change-makers,” bypassing existing institutional arrangements. This paper first assesses the different kinds of social and civil entrepreneurs in global civil society, and identifies the specific features of their type of political action.