GLOBAL GOVERNANCE

Amandio De Araujo Sarmento

Dewinta Haryanti
Hartanto
Yudha Kurniawan
In the present period of rapid and extensive
global change, the constitutions of national
governments and their treaties have been
undermined by the increasing demands and
solidarity of ethnic and other subgroups.
Although the concept of global governance is
relatively new, many theories have been in
place for some time.
In addition to the end of the Cold War,
the debate on globalization has been an
important source of the emergence of
theories on global governance. Economic
globalization, for one, leads to a power
shift from state to market, which is an
important factor contributing to the
emergence of global governance.
Along with the globalization of economies, other changes
became apparent, such as the surge of global social
movements, the shrinking of political distances by
microelectronic technologies, and the mushrooming of
global interdependencies fostered by currency crisis,
AIDS, and terrorism, all of which touch upon the subject
of global governance. These centralizing and
decentralizing dynamics have undermined the
constitutions and treaties of national governments.
Governments still operate as sovereign powers in a
number of ways, but some of their authority has been
relocated toward sub-national collectivities.
What is Governance?
Governance is thus a system of rules
that are dependent on “inter-
subjective” meanings as on formally
sanctioned constitutions and charters
or a system of rule that works only if
the majority accepts it.
Is governance synonymous with government?

Governance is not synonymous with

government. While governments perform
activities that are backed by formal authority
and monopolize police powers to insure the
implementation of duly constituted policies,
governance performs activities backed by
shared goals that may or may not derive from
legal and formally prescribed responsibilities
which do not necessarily rely on police powers
to overcome defiance and attain compliance.
What is Global Governance?
In the global context, global governance means
“governance in the global arena,” referring to
all the governance that occurs throughout the
global order. Therefore, global governance
implicitly indicates the global shift from statism
to integration as well as the fragmentation of
actors in the international arena. There is a
possibility of a global transformation from the
primacy of “government” to that of
“governance.”
According to the Commission on Global
Governance, which was established under the
UN in 1995, global governance can be defined
as “the sum of the many ways individuals and
institutions, public and private, manage their
common affairs.” It is “a continuing process
through which conflicting or diverse interests
may be accommodated and co-operative
action may be taken.”
In another study, Leon Gordenker and Thomas
Weiss define global governance as “efforts to
bring more orderly and reliable responses to
social and political issues that go beyond the
capacities of states to address individually.” In
other words, the term global governance
reflects the current situation in which declining
state power provides non-state actors with the
capacity and opportunity to assert their
interests.
In sum, global governance is a term
adopted to account for the foregoing
changes in the increasingly globalizing
international arena in the post-Cold
War era, underscoring the search for
the co-existence of a wide variety of
international actors without privileging
any one specific actor, such as states.
Forms of Global Governance
Perhaps the greatest change, however, has been the growth of
multilayered governance and the diffusion of political
authority, with the role of the nation-state transformed by the
development of regional trade blocs like the European Union,
NAFTA, and ASEAN; the growing role of international bodies
like the World Trade Organization, UN and NATO; the
burgeoning network of transnational NGOs; and new norms and
regulations of international and multilateral governance on
issues ranging from trade to human rights and environmental
protection. (Global Governance & Cosmopolitan Citizens,
Pippa Norris).
Global Governance and Comopolitanism

The globalization of markets, governance

and communications can strengthen a
cosmopolitan orientation, broadening
identities beyond national boundaries to a
world community, and increasing
awareness of the benefits of transnational
collaboration within regional associations
and international institutions.
Bibliography
Hewson, Martin and Timothy Sinclair. Approaches to Global
Governance Theory (New York: State University of New York
Press, 1999).
Rosenau, James. “Governance, Order, and Change in World
Politics,” in James Rosenau and Ernst-otto Czempiel (eds.),
Governance without Government: Order and Change in World
Politics (New York: Cambridge University Press, 1992).
Rosenau, James. "Change, Complexity and Governance in
Globalizing Space,” in Jon Pierre (ed.), Debating Governance
(New York: Oxford University Press, 2000).