Index
Global and local governance
Global and local governance explores the ways in which different organizations and societal wholes are steered towards desirable outcomes by means of rules, principles and various policy instruments. Although the origins of the term are in the Greek word kubernan ('to steer'), and was used in its metaphorical sense already by Plato, in the late twentieth century the term has been associated with the rise of neoliberalism. The World Bank defines governance as the exercise of political authority and the use of institutional resources to manage society's problems and affairs. Typically this kind of management is based on the idea of rational public intervention in an otherwise autonomous society obeying its own laws. Characteristically the 'autonomous society' is seen or constituted as 'private' and the laws they obey are the laws of market or something analogical to them. For instance, the advocates of the New Public Management theory―the basis of sweeping public sector reforms across the world since the 1980s―have preferred the term 'governance' over 'administration' because it gives a sense of indirect steering in stead of direct regulations, directives and orders. In International Relations theory the term 'governance' has gained popularity because while various international organizations, rules and principles lack the mechanisms of enforcement, they are nonetheless often effective in steering actions, practices and policies to a set direction.
Researchers working within Global and local governance do not study merely the steering of organizations and societal wholes as a thing in itself but also the way this metaphorical 'steering' is constituted and the effects of power these constitutions have. By opening the question of power, the point is also to study the legitimacy of practices and systems of governance, especially from a democratic theory point of view. Research questions raised in this thematic cluster include, but are not limited to, the following:
- How is the idea and mentality of 'governance' constituted in the early 21st century practices, and with what effects of power?
- What forms of agency are empowered by means of governance, what disempowered?
- Are the prevailing practices and systems of governance legitimate in terms of their self-justification, especially in terms of economic efficiency?
- Are the prevailing practices and systems of governance legitimate in terms of ethico-political and legal principles, including justice and democracy? Do they serve any higher ends such as freedom and collective human learning?
- What democratic or otherwise desirable alternatives are there?