Hostname: page-component-7dd5485656-gs9qr Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2025-10-31T06:55:34.421Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false
  • English
  • Français

Change in or of global governance?

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  28 December 2020

Michael Barnett Open the ORCID record for Michael Barnett [Opens in a new window]
Michael Barnett*
Affiliation:
International Affairs and Political Science, George Washington University, Washington, DC, USA
*
Corresponding author. E-mail: barnett@gwu.edu
Get access Rights & Permissions [Opens in a new window]

Abstract

Michael Zürn's Theory of Global Governance is an original, bold, and compelling argument regarding the causes of change in global governance. A core argument is that legitimation problems trigger changes in global governance. This contribution addresses two core features of the argument. Although I am persuaded that legitimacy matters, there are times when: legitimacy appears to be given too much credit to the relative neglect of other factors; other times when the lack of legitimacy has little discernible impact on the working of global governance; and unanswered questions about how the legitimacy of global governance relates to the legitimacy of the international order of which it is a part. The second feature is what counts as change in global governance. Zürn reduces change to either deepening or decline, overlooking the possible how of global governance. In contrast to Zürn's map of global governance that is dominated by hierarchies in the form of international organizations, an alternative map locates multiple modes of governance: hierarchies, markets, and networks. The kinds of legitimation problems that Zürn identifies, I argue, can help explain some of the movement from hierarchical to other modes of global governance.

Keywords

global governancelegitimacymodes of governancemarketshierarchiesnetworks

Information

Type
Symposium: Authority, Legitimacy, and Contestation in Global Governance: Edited by Orfeo Fioretos and Jonas Tallberg
Information
International Theory , Volume 13 , Issue 1 , March 2021 , pp. 131 - 143
Copyright
Copyright © The Author(s), 2020. Published by Cambridge University Press

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

Article purchase

Temporarily unavailable

References

Abbott, Ken, and Snidal, Duncan. 2009. “Strengthening International Regulation Through Transnational New Governance: Overcoming the Orchestration Deficit.” Vanderbilt Journal of Transnational Law 47 (2): 501–78.Google Scholar
Alcaro, Riccardo. 2018. “The Liberal Order and its Contestations: A Conceptual Framework.” The International Spectator 53 (1): 1–10.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Alter, Karen, and Raustialia, Kal. 2018. “The Rise of International Regime Complexity.” Annual Review of Law and Political Science 14: 329–49.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Appiah, Anthony. 2007. Cosmopolitanism: Ethics in a World of Strangers. New York: Norton.Google Scholar
Barnett, Michael. 1997. “Bringing in the New World Order: Liberalism, Legitimacy, and the United Nations.” World Politics 49 (4): 526–51.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Barnett, Michael, Pevehouse, Jon, and Raustialia, Kal. 2021. “Introduction,” in Michael Barnett, Jon Pevehouse, and Kal Raustiala, eds., Global Governance in a World of Change. New York: Cambridge University Press.Google Scholar
Beate, Jahn. 2018. “Liberal Internationalism: Historical Trajectory and Current Prospects.” International Affairs 94 (1): 43–61.Google Scholar
Bolton, John. 2000. “Should We Take Global Governance Seriously?” Presented at the Conference “Trends in Global Governance: Do They Threaten American Sovereignty?” American Enterprise Institute, 4–5 April. Available at https://www.iatp.org/sites/default/files/Should_We_Take_Global_Governance_Seriously.htm.Google Scholar
Calhoun, Craig. 2008. “Cosmopolitanism and Nationalism.” Nations and Nationalism 14 (3): 427–48.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Dellmuth, L., Scholte, J., and Tallberg, J.. 2019. “Institutional Sources of Legitimacy for International Organisations: Beyond Procedure versus Performance.” Review of International Studies 45 (4): 627–46.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Deitelhoff, Nicole, and Daase, Christopher. 2020. “Rule and Resistance in Global Governance.” International Theory 13 (1): 122–30.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Deudney, Daniel, and Ikenberry, G. John. 2018. “Liberal World: The Resilient Order.” Foreign Affairs 97 (4): 16–24.Google Scholar
Du Bois, W.E.B. 2014. The Problem of the Color Line at the Turn of the Twentieth Century: The Early Essential Essays. NY: Fordham University Press.Google Scholar
Duncombe, Constance, and Dunne, Tim. 2018. “After Liberal World Order.” International Affairs 94 (1): 25–42.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Ferguson, Niall, and Zakaria, Fareed. 2017. The End of the Liberal Order? London: Oneworld Publications.Google Scholar
Fukuyama, Francis. 2018. Identity: The Demand for Dignity and the Politics of Resentment. NY: Farrar, Straus, and Giroux.Google Scholar
Grewal, David. 2018. “Three Theses on the Current Crisis of International Liberalism.” Indiana Journal of Global Legal Studies 25 (2): 595–621.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Ikenberry, G. John. 2018. “The End of Liberal International Order?” International Affairs 94 (1): 7–23.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Kahler, Miles. 2018. “Global Governance: Three Futures.” International Studies Review 20 (2): 239–46.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Kahler, Miles, and Lake, David, eds. 2003. Governance in a Global Economy: Political Authority in Transition. Princeton: Princeton University Press.Google Scholar
Kelley, Judith, and Simmons, Beth. 2020. “Governance By Other Means: Rankings as Regulatory Systems.” International Theory 13 (1): 169–78.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Mead, Walter Russell. 2017. “The Jacksonian Revolt: American Populism and the Liberal Order.” Foreign Affairs 96 (2): 4–14.Google Scholar
Mearsheimer, John. 2019. “Bound to Fail: The Rise and Fall of the Liberal International Order.” International Security, 43 (4): 7–50.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Ministry of Foreign Affairs of the People's Republic of China. 2018. “Liu He Attends and Addresses the World Economic Forum Annual Meeting 2018. 25 January. Available at https://www.fmprc.gov.cn/mfa_eng/zxxx_662805/t1529228.shtmlGoogle Scholar
Murphy, Craig. 1984. The Emergence of the NIEO Ideology. Boulder: Westview Press.Google Scholar
Nye, Joseph Jr. 2017. “Will the Liberal Order Survive: The History of an Idea.” Foreign Affairs, 96 (1): 10–16.Google Scholar
Podolny, Joel, and Page, Karen. 1998. “Network Forms of Organization.” Annual Review of Sociology 242: 57–76.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Posner, Eric. 2017. “Liberal Internationalism and the Populist Backlash.” Arizona State University Law Journal 49: 795–819.Google Scholar
Pouliot, Vincent. 2020. “Global Governance in the Age of Epistemic Authority.” International Theory 13 (1): 144–56.Google Scholar
Richardson, James. 1997. “Contending Liberalisms: Past and Present.” European Journal of International Relations 3 (1): 5–34.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Seabrooke, Leonard, and Henrickson, Lasse Folke, eds. 2017. Professional Networks in Transnational Governance. Cambridge, New York: Cambridge University Press.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Smith, Jackie. 2014. Global Democracy and the World Social Forums. Abingdon, New York: Routledge.Google Scholar
Stroup, Sara, and Wong, Wendy. 2017. The Authority Trap: Strategic Choices of International NGOs. Ithaca: Cornell University Press.Google Scholar
Thompson, Graham. 2003. Between Hierarchies and Markets: The Logic and Limits of Network Forms of Organization. Oxford, New York: Oxford University Press.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Wade, Robert. 2013. “The Art of Power Maintenance: How Western States Keep the Lead in Global Organizations.” Challenge 56 (1): 5–39.Google Scholar
Waldron, Jeremy. 2000. “What is Cosmopolitanism.” The Journal of Political Philosophy 8 (2): 227–43.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
White House. 2018. “Remarks by President Trump at the 73rd United Nations General Assembly.” Available at https://www.whitehouse.gov/briefings-statements/remarks-president-trump-73rd-session-united-nations-general-assembly-new-york-ny/Google Scholar
Wright, Richard. 1995. The Color Curtain: A Report on the Bandung Conference. Oxford, Mississippi: University Press of Mississippi.Google Scholar
Williamson, Oliver. 1991. “Comparative Economic Organization: The Analysis of Discrete Alternatives.” Administrative Sciences Quarterly 36 (2): 269–96.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Zaum, Dominik. 2013. Legitimating International Organizations. Oxford, New York: Oxford University Press.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Zürn, Michael. 2018. A Theory of Global Governance: Authority, Legitimacy, and Contestation. Oxford, New York: Oxford University Press.CrossRefGoogle Scholar