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The human rights regime as global governance

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The Fundamentals of Global Governance

Abstract

Disputes about the concept of global governance generally take place around a shared understanding that there are two distinct but not entirely free-standing uses of the term. The first, referred to throughout this book as ‘summative’ global governance, depicts the overall order of the world, many important elements of which are not accounted for by the structures and dynamics of states and the international system. The second, characterised in previous chapters as ‘sector specific’, is not necessarily unitary or in possession of commanding political authority, but refers to order-creating and sustaining action in defined arenas of human endeavour (global finance) or consequence (health; environment). So what has come to be known as global governance can be exercised directly, or created and sustained through a combination of state/non-state and formal/informal mechanisms. Neither seems adequate on its own, either in descriptive or normative terms;1 and a substantial portion of contestation over global governance consists of investigating highly complex and dynamic questions of political authority, practical capacity, accountability, agency and legitimacy2 in a world in which states and the international system are necessary but not sufficient for the kinds of global order we can observe and, under the pressure of events, those we must shore up, extend or create.

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Notes

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  1. Jim Whitman
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© 2009 Jim Whitman

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Whitman, J. (2009). The human rights regime as global governance. In: The Fundamentals of Global Governance. Palgrave Macmillan, London. https://doi.org/10.1057/9780230234338_10

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