The Evolution of a Global Labor Governance Regime

During the last decade, the approach by businesses and governments toward labor and social issues at the global level has fundamentally changed. Industrial relations are rapidly internationalizing by developing new actors and forms of governance to deal with the regulation of labor. This article looks at the evolution of self‐regulatory standards in the global labor governance debate. Key is that notwithstanding problems with the lacking legal framework of global regulation and enforceability, patterns of local self‐regulation, norm‐setting, and international codes lead not only to higher expectations of the behavior of transnationally operating firms but also to an indirect pattern of regulation. The article argues that particularly the adoption of the core labor standards by the International Labour Organization (ILO) and the setup of the Global Compact by the UN serve as points of convergence. A plethora of voluntarist initiatives that converge over time toward a shared understanding of labor standards is part of the transformation of global labor governance institutions.     

治理韧性：新时代中国社会治理的维度与效度

面对百年未有之大变局,治理韧性作为社会风险治理的新视角愈加成为学界及政府界高度关注的话题,然而,无论是在学术研究还是公共政策实践中,由于缺乏对治理韧性的理论溯源、概念辨析与场域锁定等的准确甄别,因此产生了治理韧性本质内涵解读差异化、形式外延界定多样化的认知分歧。本研究尝试将治理韧性置于新时代中国社会治理的特定场域中,揭示了“调适有度”是社会治理韧性的本质,权力限度、结构密度、价值温度与目标精度是识别社会治理韧性的维度坐标。提升社会治理韧性,必须从授权赋能、社会凝聚、共同富裕、敏捷治理等方面促进社会治理体系的有效调适,从而增进新时代中国社会治理的有效性。     

Civil Society and Global Governance: The Possibilities for Global Citizenship

In this article we reassert the role of governance as well as of civil society in the analysis of citizenship. We argue that to analyse global civil society and global citizenship it is necessary to focus on global governance. Just as states may facilitate or obstruct the emergence and development of national civil society, so too global governance institutions may facilitate or obstruct an emerging global civil society. Our key contention is that civil society at the global level thrives through its interaction with strong facilitating institutions of global governance. We start with a discussion of civil society and citizenship within the nation-state, and from there develop a model of global civil society and citizenship. Through analysing the impacts of various modes of global governance, we identify strategically appropriate forms of political and social engagement that best advance the prospects for global citizenship.     

The Postnational Constellation: Democratic Governance in the Era of Globalization

Books reviewed in this article:
Daniele Archibugi, David Held, and Martin Köhler, (ed.) Re-imagining Political Community: Studies in Cosmopolitan Democracy.
Max Pensky, (ed.) The Postnational Constellation: Political Essays. By Jürgen Habermas.
Beate Kohler-Koch, Regieren in entgrenzten Räumen. (Governance in Debordered Spaces.) Politische Vierteljahresschrift, special issue 29.
Wolfgang Streeck, (ed.) Internationale Wirtschaft, nationale Demokratie. Herausforderungen für die Demokratietheorie. (International Economy, National Democracy: Challenges for Democratic Theory.)
Michael Zürn, Regieren jenseits des Nationalstaates. (Governance Beyond the Nation-State.)     

The Club Rules in Global Financial Governance

Though the list of reforms following the onset of the financial crisis is long, we should resist the temptation to view the emerging regulatory framework in terms of a paradigm shift. Many key features of the system, including the privileged position of financial institutions, remain unchanged. This is not merely due to obstruction or capacity shortcomings but can be explained by considering the sources of ideas and the governance setting. Ideas and policy programmes for reform were generated by a policy community also responsible for shaping the pre‐crisis governance framework. Moreover, the ideas and preferences of these players are moulded by their transnational interactions and the club‐like mechanisms in place for determining what (and who) is to be included in discussions. These settings have produced policy programmes that helped address the immediate, ‘fast‐burning’ elements of the crisis, but have so far failed to put together a comprehensive reform programme.     

Postsovereign Governance in a Globalizing and Fragmenting World: The Case of Mexico

Globalization and “global governance” have become the buzzwords at the turn of the century in order to name and explain the emerging post-Cold War international order. The first one makes reference to the technological revolution that is modifying our notions of space, time, and production, while the latter attempts to illustrate how power and its regulatory practices are being transformed among polities. We discuss these two notions in the first part of this essay to argue that, in fact, the emerging “global” order will be different from that grounded on state-centered notions of territory and sovereignty. Our arguments focus on the Mexican case to highlight how this country is moving from an inward-looking, state-centered, authoritarian machinery of governance, to a postsovereign, principle-based, multilayered governance structure. This transition has mainly manifested in the governance mechanisms of corporate and human rights. This does not mean that policy tools of the “ancient regime” have completely disappeared. State-centered structures of governance will remain important during this stage of economic and political change. Areas moving into postsovereign and principled regulatory practices will overlap with those that remain under the monopoly of national bureaucracies. Though Mexico's economic and political change could be explained as a reactive movement against the collapse of the state-centered authoritarian model, an important conclusion of this essay is that the emerging pattern of postsovereign and principled bureaucratic governance will play a major role in shaping the future of those changes.     

The WTO's Appellate Body: Legal Formalism as a Legitimation of Global Governance

The creation of the Appellate Body (AB) of the World Trade Organization (WTO) entails an unprecedented delegation of power to an international adjudicator, because the WTO requires states to ensure compliance of their domestic regulations with the sweeping obligations in WTO agreements. This is legitimized in some academic analyses and much political rhetoric in terms of the rule of law, suggesting that the role of the adjudicator is merely to apply the precise words of the texts agreed by states, according to their natural meaning. The AB has supported this by adopting a formalist approach that combines an objectivist view of meaning with a legalistic style of judgment. However, both the general structure and many of the specific provisions of the WTO agreements are indeterminate and raise issues of interpretation that were known to be highly contestable. Although the delegation of adjudication in its early phase was considered to be of a narrow technical function, in the current phase interpretation is more clearly seen to involve a flexible application of principles to cases in light of the policies involved. The AB's role would be better legitimized by adopting a more open epistemology and reasoning that could be accessible to a wider constituency. However, it is constrained by fear of usurping the political legitimacy of the governments to which it is primarily accountable, and governments, in turn, are motivated by a reluctance to admit to their domestic constituencies how much power has been transferred to supranational instances such as the AB.     

The Emergence of a Global Civil Society: The Case of Anti-Apartheid

Abstract

This article argues that the transnational anti-apartheid movement which, from a global perspective, must be seen as one of the most significant social movements during the post-war era, made an important contribution to the emergence and consolidation of a global civil society during this period. The transnational anti-apartheid movement lasted for more than three decades, from the late 1950s to 1994, when the first democratic elections in South Africa were held, and it had a presence on all continents. In this sense, the interactions of the anti-apartheid movement were part of the construction of a global political culture during the Cold War. Further, I argue that the history of the anti-apartheid struggle provides an important historical case for the analysis of present-day global politics, as it is evident that the present mobilization of a global civil society in relation to economic globalization and supranational political institutions such as the World Trade Organization (WTO), the International Monetary Fund (IMF) and the World Bank, has historical links to the post-war, transnational political culture of which the anti-apartheid movement formed an important part. Movement organizations, action forms and networks that were formed and developed in the anti-apartheid struggle are present in this contemporary context, making the transnational anti-apartheid movement an important historical resource for contemporary global civil society.     

Global Governance: Prospects and Problems

The 50th anniversary of the UN in 1995 occasioned a widespread international discussion of 'global governance'. This term is understood to denote not just conventional bodies of international security and economic management but the overlapping and interlocking of institutions found in all issues and regions, and the increasing body of non-state actors, broadly termed 'international civil society'. This article discusses the functions and reform of global governance, and then examines these in the light of five central issues of the 1990s: the role of the great powers, peace-keeping, economic nationalism, a crisis of NGOs, and global values. It argues that advocacy of global governance must be matched by political realism on the one hand, and the recognition of the need for difficult ethical choices on the other.     

后真相时代与数字政府治理的祛魅

推行数字政府治理是过去十年间各国政府应对互联网社会变革的基本策略共识。尽管刚刚发生的"后真相时代"政治危机已经用事实反映出既有数字政府治理策略的缺陷,但对其进行的严肃反思仍寥寥无几。借助梳理数字政府治理运动的核心文献,不但可以提炼出其中"技术—组织—权威"的基本策略逻辑,更重要的是得以揭示该逻辑所引发的歧义与恐慌。面对后真相时代里传统型利益冲突协调机制的失效,以及政治精英与公众间正义观念的尖锐对立,数字政府治理究竟能否提供公众需要并信赖的信息、能否摆脱科层制组织文化的束缚、能否建立起人格化的"关联型"权威,将成为决策者应用这一策略来应对危机过程中必须持续反思的问题。     

The Politics of Network Governance in Europe: The Case of Energy Regulation

Networks are considered increasingly important for policy-making. The literature on new modes of governance in Europe suggests that their horizontal coordination capacity and flexible and informal structures are particularly suitable for governing the multilevel architecture of the European polity. However, empirical evidence about the effects of networks on policy-making and public policies is still quite limited. This article uses the case of the European network of energy regulators to explore the determinants of the position of network members and, in turn, the domestic adoption of soft rules developed within this network. The empirical analysis, based on multivariate statistics and semi-directive interviews, supports the expectation that institutional complementarities increase actors’ centrality in networks, while arguments based on organisational resources and age are disproved. Furthermore, results show that the overall level of adoption is considerable and that centrality might have a small positive effect on domestic adoption.     

开创新时代社会治理新格局

我国社会治理,基本遵循了从"社会管理"到"共建共治共享"跨越的创新逻辑,但在现实中,治理"瓶颈"仍然存在,主要表现为治理结构没有跟上实践发展、治理主体关系没有及时法定化、治理过程不够协调、治理规范不够完善。党的十九大以来,我国社会治理将在体系、机制、制度等三个方面并进,规范多元主体参与的共建体系、创新化解社会矛盾的共治机制,完善民生获得的共享制度,从而开创新时代社会治理新格局。     

全球化视野中的政府角色：理性思考与现实选择

全球化一方面强化了政府的传统角色,另一方面又使民族国家的政府面临着权威缺失、政府角色需要重新定位和调整的情况。在全球化背景下,西方各国纷纷对传统政府角色进行调整和重塑,强调和强化政府作为“掌舵人”、“服务者”以及国家利益“维护者”等的角色定位。为适应全球化的挑战,中国政府必须在认真审视本身存在的差距的情况下,积极对政府的角色进行必要的重新定位和调整。     

全球治理视阈下我国外交的应对方略

全球治理是应对全球化的一种反应,它的出现是对传统国际关系的挑战。全球治理已是不可逆转的历史趋势,它给中国的内政外交带来了难以估量的冲击和影响。我国外交必须制定出应对方略:坚持发展中国家的属性与定位,统筹协调好大国关系,打牢同发展中国家互信合作的基础,推进周边区域治理,开展好公共外交,善用并倚重各种全球治理平台,参与全球化,推进全球治理。     

全球治理的中国智慧——构建人类命运共同体

在全球形势日益复杂、世界处于大发展大变革的新时期,国际治理成为维持世界稳定发展的重要手段。以习近平同志为核心的党中央提出的构建人类命运共同体倡议,引起了世界各国的普遍关注和认同。人类命运共同体有其理论和实践依据,更为全人类的幸福描绘了美好蓝图,制订了行动方案。这是中国为全球治理贡献的中国智慧,反映了中国为维护和推动世界和平与发展理应做出大国贡献的信心和决心。     

Analyzing Global Governance Failure: A Philosophical Framework

This article seeks to make a contribution to theory development by explicating the competing approaches (explanatory frameworks and research methods) that can be used in the analysis of episodes of global governance failures—undesirable events (such as war, or incidents of international terrorism) and behaviors (such as rogue political leaders accumulating weapons of mass destruction or supporting international terrorist groups) that are a consequence of the ineffectiveness of a global governance process. It does so by constructing a methodological taxonomy, which enables the identification of the competing philosophical methodologies that underpin contending perspectives on the causation of, and solutions to, episodes of global governance failures, by reference to contesting understandings of what knowledge is (an epistemological issue) and what exists that is capable of giving rise to consequences (an ontological issue). It then identifies the epistemological and ontological challenges facing policy analysts seeking to analyze and address global governance failure. Meeting these challenges requires the adoption of a methodology that draws insights from the epistemological and ontological syntheses that have emerged within contemporary social theory.