Global Governance

Catalog description

This course provides an overview of the evolving architecture, processes and variable outcomes of global governance. Governance, at whatever level of social organization it occurs, refers to the systems of authoritative rules, norms, institutions, and practices by means of which any collectivity, from the local to the global, manages its common affairs. Global governance is generally defined as an instance of governance in the absence of government. There is no government at the global level: the UN General Assembly is not a global parliament, and Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon is not the president of the world. But there is governance, of variable effectiveness. The course is divided into four sections. The first briefly introduces the subject. The second examines the core elements in the traditional architecture of global governance - its institutional and legal foundation. The third surveys emerging trends in that architecture. The fourth (and longest) section explores the key policy processes performed by/in/through global governance, addressing how and why they differ across different issue areas. 001279