Building Global Democracy?: Civil Society and Accountable Global Governance

by Edited by Jan Aart Scholte

• ISBN13: 9780521192194
• ISBN10: 0521192196
• Format: Hardcover
• Copyright: 2011-05-09
• Publisher: Cambridge University Press

Summary

The scale, effectiveness and legitimacy of global governance lag far behind the world's needs. This path-breaking book examines how far civil society involvement provides an answer to these problems. Does civil society make global governance more democratic? Have citizen action groups raised the accountability of global bodies that deal with challenges such as climate change, financial crises, conflict, disease and inequality? What circumstances have promoted (or blocked) civil society efforts to make global governance institutions more democratically accountable? What could improve these outcomes in the future? The authors base their argument on studies of thirteen global institutions, including the UN, G8, WTO, ICANN and IMF. Specialists from around the world critically assess what has and has not worked in efforts to make global bodies answer to publics as well as states. Combining intellectual depth and political relevance, Building Global Democracy? will appeal to students, researchers, activists and policymakers.

Author Biography

Jan Aart Scholte is Professorial Research Fellow in the Centre for the Study of Globlisation and Regionalisation at the University of Warwick.

Table of Contents

List of figures	p. vii
Participants in the Gothenburg Workshop	p. viii
List of contributors	p. xi
Editor's acknowledgements	p. xv
List of abbreviations	p. xvii
Introduction	p. 1
Global governance, accountability and civil society	p. 8
Civil society and accountability of the United Nations	p. 42
The World Bank and democratic accountability: the role of civil society	p. 58
Civil society and IMF accountability	p. 78
Civil society and the WTO: contesting accountability	p. 105
Civil society and accountability in the Commonwealth	p. 128
The Organisation of the Islamic Conference: accountability and civil society	p. 146
Civil society and patterns of accountability in the OECD	p. 163
Civil society and G8 accountability	p. 182
Structuring accountability: civil society and the Asia-Europe Meeting	p. 206
Civil society and accountability in the global governance of climate change	p. 225
Civil society and accountability promotion in the Global Fund	p. 245
Accountability in private global governance: ICANN and civil society	p. 267
Civil society and the World Fair Trade Organization: developing responsive accountability	p. 289
Conclusion	p. 306
Bibliography	p. 343
Index	p. 381
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