Governing a more global world Jan AArt Scholte Professorial Research Fellow in the Centre for the Study of Globalization and Regionalization (CSGR) at the University of Warwick and Centennial Professor in the Centre for the Study of Global Governance (CSGG) at the London School of Economics, has held previous appointments at the University of Sussex (1985–96) and the Institute of Social Studies, The Hague (1997–98). His main publications include: Globalization: A Critical Introduction (Palgrave-Macmillan, 2010, 3rd ed.); Global Citizenship in Action? Civil Society and Accountable Global Governance, ed. (Cambridge University Press, 2010); The Encyclopaedia of Globalization, co-ed. (Routledge, 2006); Civil Society and Global Finance, ed. (Routledge, 2002); Contesting Global Governance, co-author (Cambridge University Press, 2000); and International Relations of Social Change (Open University Press, 1993). In 2005-9 he was co-editor of the journal Global Governance. He is currently coordinating a five-year action-oriented research program on ‘Building Global Democracy’ with co-conveners across ten world regions: see www.buildingglobaldemocracy.org. 128-145_PAL.indd 128 19/11/09 19:35:20 Introduction of incompatibility, say, between efficiency and With global sustainability; or between justice and peace; or consciousness The rapid growth of global social relations is one between democracy and morality? of the principal developments of the late twenti- This, then, is the central concern of the pres- people are eth and early twenty-first centuries. Society of our ent essay: how to govern a more global world in aware that they times has acquired more pronounced global pro- the early twenty-first century. Such a short paper inhabit planetary portions: human beings are connected with one cannot develop full answers, but it can clarify the realms, and their another on a planetary scale to degrees not pre- broad issues. Concretely, what institutional frame- viously known. Even deep in Amazonia, people works are developing? Normatively, what value imaginations take are aware that “globalization affects us deeply, perspectives should guide these policy processes? them anywhere touching on all the big questions” (Vieira 2005). In responding to these questions, the first on Earth. A number This more global circumstance has raised nu- part of the discussion below briefly elaborates of languages, merous headline issues for public policy. How a conception of globality and globalization. This can we best address climate change, financial preliminary step of definition is necessary since discourses, crises, infectious diseases, Internet communi- ideas of the global are so multiple and divergent. symbols, and cations, arms proliferation, transborder produc- To limit confusion it is therefore advisable for each narratives have tion chains, and intercultural accommodation, commentator to specify the particular notion of global reach. to name but a few crucial global challenges? globalization that informs their understanding. As transplanetary interlinkages have become The second part of the paper describes gov- more significant in society, rules and regulatory ernance of the contemporary more global world processes have emerged to bring greater order, in terms of a “polycentric” mode of regulation. stability, predictability, and control over global Polycentrism refers here to governance by means affairs. Like any other realm of social life, global of trans-scalar, trans-sectoral, diffuse, and over- relations are governed. lapping institutional arrangements. In a polycen- However, what form does this governance take? tric framework, global public policy is generated Is regulation of intensified global relations to be through complex networks that comprise offi- conducted, on older patterns, through territorial cial, market, civil society, and hybrid agencies. nation-states? Or is globalization prompting a These regulatory actors moreover operate across “scaling up” of the state from national to global a mix of local, provincial, national, regional, and levels with the creation of a world government? global jurisdictions. With so many institutions Or is increased globality the occasion for a return and measures involved, it can be difficult in con- of rule by empire? Or is the intense globaliza- ditions of polycentrism to identify the sources tion of current times instead a moment to revive and trace the courses of governance in respect decentered governance arrangements on a medi- of global problems. This situation creates large eval pattern? Alternatively still, is a more global difficulties of coordination and accountability, world to be governed through institutional con- which largely explains why most governance of figurations that history has not previously seen? global affairs today suffers from major shortfalls Whatever the institutional shape of global gov- in effectiveness and legitimacy. ernance, what purpose should the rules serve? Is The third part of this paper then explores the the aim to maximize material welfare in a glob- normative frameworks that might be brought to al economy? Or is the objective to ensure global these polycentric governance processes. Differ- ecological integrity? Or is the goal to advance ent ideologies assign different relative priorities global social justice with an equitable distribu- to the seven aforementioned values of economic tion of resources across humanity as a whole? productivity, ecological integrity, social justice, Or is the goal to secure peaceful settlement of peace, democracy, cultural vibrancy, and mo- global conflicts? Or is the target to foster demo- rality. The aim in this concluding section is to cratic processes in a context of global citizen- identify some of the key political choices that ship? Or is the end to promote creativity and every global citizen must take, rather than to wisdom in global culture? Or is the guiding vi- prescribe what those choices should be. sion to ensure moral decency in a global com- munity? Alternatively, if in fact the purpose of Globalization global governance encompasses several or even all of these core aims, which priorities should As elaborated elsewhere (Scholte 2005, ch. 2), prevail when different objectives clash with one globalization is a diversely understood and another? Which should take precedence in cases deeply contested concept. For example, some Governing a more global world Jan Aart Scholte 129 128-145_PAL.indd 129 19/11/09 19:35:20 commentators define globalization as a process involves savings and credits circulating in plan- of internationalization that brings a substantial etary spaces. Global military affairs see armed growth of interactions and interdependencies forces operating across the Earth with, for exam- between countries. Others conceive of globaliza- ple, intercontinental missiles, surveillance satel- tion as liberalization and the reduction of state- lites, and long-range troop deployments. Global imposed restrictions on cross-border movements health issues arise in respect of various infec- (of goods, services, capital, and—in principle if tious diseases as well as global trade in drugs. not in practice—labor). Others identify global- Global ecological developments such as climate ization as universalization, whereby a host of change, biodiversity loss, and depletion of strato- objects and experiences are spread to all cor- spheric ozone affect relations between human- ners of humanity. Still others define globaliza- ity and the rest of nature on a planetary scale. tion as deterritorialization, a process in which In addition to these many material forms, many social relations such as electronic finance globality also manifests itself ideationally. With glo- and websites (partly) transcend the geography bal consciousness people are aware that they in- of place, distance and borders. habit planetary realms, and their imaginations Globalization arguably can involve all four of take them anywhere on Earth. A number of lan- these trends and more. What is wanted, there- guages (e.g., English), discourses (e.g., ‘devel- fore, is a conception that not only encompasses opment’), symbols (e.g., the Nike insignia), and and integrates these related qualities, but at the narratives (e.g., the soap opera) have global same time also identifies the distinctive char- reach. Global spaces also host distinctive aes- acter of globalness. Such a notion is available thetics such as fusion cuisine, computer-aided if one defines globalization as the growth of design, Diaspora literature, and hybrid music transplanetary social connectivity. Globality forms. Meanwhile various non-territorial identi- is “transplanetary” in that it involves geograph- ties and associated solidarities stretch across ical spaces that can stretch to any location on the planet, with affective bonds based on caste, the Earth. Globality is “social” in that it involves clan, class, disability, faith, gender, generation, people living collectively—in this case on a plan- race, and sexuality. etary scale. Globality is “connectivity” in that it Taking this multitude of material and ide- links conditions, experiences, and destinies—in ational circumstances in sum, global connectivity this case at widely dispersed sites across the figures pervasively and deeply in contemporary so- Earth. Globalization by this definition is a process ciety. Most human beings in the early twenty-first whereby human society acquires more pronounced century encounter at least several global