Global Politics and Institutions Sudhir Chella Rajan GTI PaperPaper Series 12 3 Frontiers of a Great Transition Tellus Institute 11 Arlington Street Boston, MA 02116 Phone: 1 617 2665400 Email: [email protected] Tellus Web: http://www.tellus.org GTI Web: http://www.gtinitiative.org © Copyright 2006 by the Tellus Institute Series Editors: Orion Kriegman and Paul Raskin Manuscript Editors: Faye Camardo, Loie Hayes, Pamela Pezzati, Orion Stewart Cover Image: Stephen Bernow and Devra Ehrenberg Printed on recycled paper TheSeries Great Description Transition Initiative GTI is a global network of engaged thinkers and thoughtful activists who are committed to rigorously assessing and creatively imagining a great transition to a future of enriched lives, human solidarity, and a healthy planet. GTI’s message of hope aims to counter resignation and pessimism, and help spark a citizens movement for carrying the transition forward. This paper series elaborates the global challenge, future visions, and strategic directions. GTI Paper Series Frontiers of a Great Transition The Global Moment and its Possibilities 1. Great Transition: The Promise and Lure of the Times Ahead (Raskin, Banuri, Gallopín, Gutman, Hammond, Kates, Swart) Planetary civilization, global scenarios, and change strategies 2. The Great Transition Today: A Report From the Future (Raskin) An optimistic vision of global society in the year 2084 Institutional Transitions 3. Global Politics and Institutions (Rajan) Principles and visions for a new globalism 4. Visions of Regional Economies in a Great Transition World (Rosen and Schweickart) Reinventing economies for the twenty-first century 5. Transforming the Corporation (White) Redesigning the corporation for social purpose 6. Trading into the Future: Rounding the Corner to Sustainable Development (Halle) International trade in a sustainable and equitable world 7. Security in the Great Transition (Knight) Imagining a transition to a world without war 8. How Technology Could Contribute to a Sustainable World (Vergragt) Technological innovation and human choice Human and Environmental Dimensions 9. Great Transition Values: Present Attitudes, Future Changes (Kates, Leiserowitz, Parris) Alignment and tension between contemporary values and a new global humanism 10. The Role of Well-being in a Great Transition (Stutz) Improved quality-of-life as an attractor for dematerialized societies 11. Feminist Praxis: Women’s Transnational and Place Based Struggles for Change (Harcourt) Lessons from women's movements for a Great Transition 12. Sustainable Communities and the Great Transition (Goldstein) New frontiers for transforming cities 13. Climate Change: Redemption through Crisis (Kartha) The climate challenge and paths to an equitable solution 14. Resilience and Pluralism: Ecosystems and Society in a Great Transition (Lucas, Bennett) Human impacts on the biosphere and socio-ecological management Crystallizing a Systems Shift 15. Dawn of the Cosmopolitan: The Hope of a Global Citizens Movement (Kriegman) Prospects for a global movement and what it might look like 16. World Lines: Pathways, Pivots and the Global Future (Raskin) Dynamics of global change: crisis, choice, and action Author Chella Rajan is a Senior Fellow at the Tellus Institute, where he leads the Program on Global Politics and Institutions. His research has centered on the interactions among social, political, technological and environmental factors relating to sustainable development. His current work focuses on the conditions for the formation of a global political community with a common identity. His numerous publications include a book on automobility and environmental policy. Rajan holds a doctorate in environmental science and engineering from the University of California, Los Angeles. Acknowledgements I am grateful to Working Group members and colleagues at the Tellus Institute for providing me invaluable advice on earlier drafts of this paper. Special thanks are due to Sylvia Karlsson, Orion Kriegman, and Paul Raskin for their excellent specific suggestions throughout the document. Table of Contents Introduction ......................................................................................................................... 1 Rationale: Why “Politics” and Why “Global?” .................................................................. 2 Recapturing the History of Politics and Institutions ........................................................... 4 Politics from Below and Above: the Imagined Community ............................................... 8 Democracy in Dogville ................................................................................................. 10 The nation-state against stateless people ...................................................................... 10 Addressing global injustice ........................................................................................... 11 Can globalism replace nationalism? ............................................................................. 12 An Imagined Global Political Community ....................................................................... 13 Political life within the archetypes ................................................................................ 19 Pointers of Hope ............................................................................................................... 22 References ......................................................................................................................... 25 Global Politics and Institutions Introduction A familiar refrain in our time is that humanity is at a crossroads with respect to dealing with multiple threats to its preservation as a species: poverty, widespread violence, dangerous illnesses, environmental catastrophes, and social breakdown. While we may have only a narrow window of opportunity to overcome these crises, a well-worn set of themes has been proposed to manage them: investments and financial transfers to the South to kick-start income generation opportunities; improved technology and coordinated policies to address economic, environmental, and health concerns; and genuine international cooperation towards peace and security. Sadly, though not unexpectedly, one senses only fatigue and frustration in policy-makers’ continued attempts to apply these policies, with little to show for their efforts as existing problems worsen and new dangers appear on the horizon. The trouble seems to be that, barring a substantial reorientation in our shared understanding of human progress and solidarity, in the absence of clear visions of alternative common futures, and without clear pathways for getting there, we may be doomed to adopt fragmented and incomplete solutions to address the great challenges of the twenty-first century. On the other hand, as the other papers in this series reiterate, we may yet be able to engender a substantial shift—a Great Transition—in human attitudes and behavior towards sustainability to set in motion the technical, institutional, and social changes needed to meet the multiple challenges to humanity in a timely manner. One of the salient premises of the Great Transition thesis is that we are in a planetary phase of civilization, the beginning of a fundamentally new type of engagement with history (Raskin et al., 2002). New opportunities and threats accompany our greater global connectivity and heightened disjunctures around nation, ethnicity, and class. If the past is any guide, major social transformations have taken place during similar “cusps” whose objective reality was in the changing relations among human formations, nature, and technology. But these changes during different epochs have been accompanied as much by large catalytic events—or revolutions—as by gradual evolutionary change in behavior, attitudes, and forms of political organization. Neither the direction nor the character of these shifts could have been fully anticipated, given the exigencies of the rush of events as well as the power relations that were formed in particular places and times. Yet, collective imagination and visionary leadership were influential in shaping at least some aspects of change, particularly in later periods, where print media were able to disseminate ideas more widely. This paper emphasizes the political and institutional dimensions of a Great Transition world and, in doing so, develops a hopeful vision of alternative forms of collective action. Thus, it tries to outline the politics and institutions that would be most compatible with meeting humanity’s complex and manifold goals, even as other social, technological, and economic transformations take place. Its primary focus is the institutional arrangements that would facilitate a democratic global politics in the future, but it also lays out some current trends that show promise towards realizing such a future. As in companion pieces of this report series, the following format is adopted: a definition of the problem, a brief discussion on its history and context, an imagined future of Global Politics and Institutions politics and institutions in a Great Transition world, and contemporary political debates and activity that provide inspiration for realizing that future. Rationale: Why “Politics” and Why “Global?” The Blackwell Encyclopedia of Political Thought defines politics as the “process whereby a group of people, whose opinions or interests are initially divergent, reach collective decisions which are generally