Global Governance in the “Anthropocene”

2018 ◽  
pp. 466-478
Author(s):  
Frank Biermann
Keyword(s):  
United Nations ◽  
Political Theory ◽  
Global Governance ◽  
Political Systems ◽  
Research Topics ◽  
Planetary Evolution ◽  
Village Level ◽  
International Political Theory ◽  
New Challenges ◽  
The Village

The concept of an Anthropocene is now widely used in a variety of contexts, communities, and connotations. This chapter explores the possible consequences of this paradigmatic turn for the field of International Political Theory (IPT), arguing that the notion of an Anthropocene is likely to change the way we understand political systems both analytically and normatively, from the village level up to the United Nations. This makes the Anthropocene one of the most demanding, and most interesting, research topics for the field of IPT. The chapter first lays out the manifold new challenges for IPT that have been brought about by the concept of the Anthropocene, and then illustrates these challenges with an example: the increasing need of governments to define and agree upon “desirable” futures for planetary evolution.

UN reform, biopolitics, and global governmentality

2010 ◽  
Vol 2 (1) ◽  
pp. 50-86 ◽  
Author(s):  
Hans-Martin Jaeger
Keyword(s):  
International Relations ◽  
United Nations ◽  
International Law ◽  
Political Theory ◽  
Global Governance ◽  
State Power ◽  
Fundamental Principle ◽  
Institutional Authority ◽  
Un Reform ◽  
Global Population

Commentary on the United Nations (UN) reform efforts of 2004–05 has broadly followed two different trajectories. International lawyers and political theorists have focused on the implications of reform for sovereignty as a fundamental principle of international law and international relations. International Relations (IR) scholars have discussed reform focusing on state power and the UN’s institutional authority. Against the background of these debates and drawing on Foucault’s political theory and related IR scholarship, this article argues that UN reform discourse indicates a biopolitical ‘reprogramming’ of contemporary sovereignty and global governance. The analysis ‘displaces’ the concerns with sovereignty, state power, and institutional authority by demonstrating that UN reform (also) constitutes the UN as a project of managing and regulating the global population through a variety of securitizing, economizing, and normalizing rationalities and techniques. The article illustrates this by pointing to the biopolitical rationales of reform conceptions of human security and collective security, and to (neo)liberal governmentalities of risk and responsibility, contractualism, benchmarking, and networks. It thereby challenges the conceptual and normative priority accorded to juridical sovereignty in international law, and to state- and institution-centric accounts in IR theorizations of UN-relayed global governance.

scholarly journals Cosmopolitanism – an alternative for Global Governance?

2014 ◽  
Vol 23 ◽  
pp. 177-191
Author(s):  
Stefan Wallaschek
Keyword(s):  
Theoretical Model ◽  
International Relations ◽  
Political Theory ◽  
Empirical Research ◽  
Global Governance ◽  
International Norms ◽  
International Political Theory ◽  
Different Levels

In the last decades Global Governance was one of the most used and contested terms in International Relations. Many researchers have shown that the concept is overstretched and they call for alternatives. Can Cosmopolitanism as a “new” international political theory be an alternative? I will propose a new theoretical model which can be used to analyze cosmopolitanism empirically. Drawing on both normative and empirical research on cosmopolitanism I demonstrate the necessary combination of both. I formulate a two-axes-model which is based on norms and conflicts. Such a theoretically based and empirically applicable model can be used to analyze different (claims of) actors in relation to a (cosmopolitan) position. In addition the model gives researchers the opportunity to scrutinize the relevance of international norms on different levels and thus offers a possible visualization of the interconnection between global arrangements and local activities. Therefore the model presents an alternative to Global Governance.

The Role of the Representative: Some Empirical Observations on the Theory of Edmund Burke

1959 ◽  
Vol 53 (3) ◽  
pp. 742-756 ◽  
Author(s):  
Heinz Eulau ◽  
John C. Wahlke ◽  
William Buchanan ◽  
Leroy C. Ferguson
Keyword(s):  
Decision Making ◽  
Political Theory ◽  
Empirical Research ◽  
Body Politic ◽  
Whole Body ◽  
Edmund Burke ◽  
Political Systems ◽  
General Consensus ◽  
History Of

The problem of representation is central to all discussions of the functions of legislatures or the behavior of legislators. For it is commonly taken for granted that, in democratic political systems, legislatures are both legitimate and authoritative decision-making institutions, and that it is their representative character which makes them authoritative and legitimate. Through the process of representation, presumably, legislatures are empowered to act for the whole body politic and are legitimized. And because, by virtue of representation, they participate in legislation, the represented accept legislative decisions as authoritative. But agreement about the meaning of the term “representation” hardly goes beyond a general consensus regarding the context within which it is appropriately used. The history of political theory is studded with definitions of representation, usually embedded in ideological assumptions and postulates which cannot serve the uses of empirical research without conceptual clarification.

Politics and the Future of ECOSOC

1961 ◽  
Vol 15 (4) ◽  
pp. 564-580 ◽  
Author(s):  
Norman J. Padelford
Keyword(s):  
United Nations ◽  
Bargaining Power ◽  
Technical Assistance ◽  
Social Cooperation ◽  
The Future ◽  
New Challenges ◽  
The United Nations

Economic and social cooperation through the United Nations seems destined to face new challenges and alternatives in the coming years as a result of the changed composition of the United Nations membership, the increased bargaining power of the African, Asian, and other states seeking economic and technical assistance, and the precedent of UN operations in the Congo.

Normative Political Theory and Global Migration Governance

2021 ◽  
Vol 16 (3) ◽  
pp. e1176
Author(s):  
Marcelo Santos
Keyword(s):  
United Nations ◽  
Political Theory ◽  
Global Justice ◽  
General Assembly ◽  
Important Advance ◽  
Global Migration ◽  
United Nations General ◽  
United Nations General Assembly ◽  
And Migration ◽  
Normative Political Theory

Based on the main contributions of normative political theory on global justice and migration ethics, this article assesses the global Compacts on refugees and migration, approved by the United Nations General Assembly in December 2018. The set of conclusions indicates that the Compacts constitute an important advance in global moral and political projects and commitments. However, the application of their predicted terms can bring about problems, distortions, and impasses in the sharing of responsibilities.

Political Labels and Post-Politics

2021 ◽  
Vol 36 (1) ◽  
pp. 26-45
Author(s):  
Artur Skorek
Keyword(s):  
Content Analysis ◽  
Comparative Analysis ◽  
Qualitative Content Analysis ◽  
Party Systems ◽  
Political Systems ◽  
Research Topics ◽  
Main Research ◽  
Political Narratives ◽  
Left And Right ◽  
Academic Debate

Debate over the present-day meaning of the traditional political terms ‘left’ and ‘right’ has been ongoing for at least three decades. Many claim that these labels have lost their former relevance. This article offers a comparative analysis of the Israeli, Polish, and Hungarian party systems. Using qualitative content analysis, it examines party platforms and politicians’ speeches in order to assess the significance of political labels both in political narratives and academic debate. Two main research topics concerning political systems of the three countries are explored in the article: the blurring of the traditional left-right divisions and the partial adoption of an anti-establishment agenda by mainstream parties.

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