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“Global Governance and Democratic Accountability”. Robert O. Keohane. Some Twenty-First Century Projections.
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“Global Governance and Democratic Accountability” Robert O. Keohane
Some Twenty-First Century Projections • In spite of the fact that there are more globalized political actors than ever, the locus of political power will still rest primarily within nation-states. • But with so many political actors, force (political, military, economic, religious, social, moral) will remain, in some important senses, fragmented. • Large parts of the world will exist in what we can call an “open global society.” Within this global society, we will see progress toward a cosmopolitan ideal with shared legal, political, and economic institutions and governance. • But this cosmopolitan ideal will not be completely realized, and some fundamental values of substantial populations will remain antithetical to each other.
Accountability Relationships Accountability Relationship = A relationship of power in which an individual, group, or other entity makes demands on an agent to report on that agent’s activities, and the individual group, or other entity has the ability to impose some kind of costs on the agent. An accountability relationship can be: • Institutionalized and/or authorized. • Implicit, assumed, and/or hoped for.
Forms of Accountability • Democratic: within a constitutional system, those who wield power are held accountable to a broad public. • Hierarchical: subordinates are held accountable to superiors. • Pluralistic: different entities (such as different branches of government) are held accountable to each other.
Justifications for Accountability • Authorization: the process by which one entity authorizes another to act confers rights on the authorizer and obligations on the part of the agent. • Support: those who provide support (political, financial, etc.) have a claim to hold the supported entity accountable. • Impact: those who are responsible for determining other people’s choices should be held accountable for their choice-determining actions.
Accountability Gaps • Accountability Gap = when political, economic, and other actors have the ability to avoid being held externally accountable for their actions, especially in regard to support and impact. • We can view some of the more worrisome features of globalization as accountability gaps. • Accountability gaps might lead to environmental injustices and negative environmental impacts. • Which global actors create accountability gaps?
Entities that might create accountability gaps: • Political intergovernmental organizations such as the United Nations and the European Union. • Economical intergovernmental organizations such as the World Trade Organization, the World Bank, and the International Monetary Fund. • Transgovernmental and private sector networks such as those that link central bankers and securities regulators. • Multinational corporations. • Non-governmental organizations (NGOs). • Covert terrorist networks, drug cartels, and crime syndicates. • The Roman Catholic Church. • Other mass religious movements. • Powerful nation-states.
