The Rise of Global Governance: Transformations in Sites of Political Authority

Many societies in history have succumbed to the vain belief that they are afflicted with unprecedented troubles. It is claimed that governance has never been more troublesome, security threats are exceptional, and that human relations are in a state of unparalleled decline. But the winds of change that attract such opprobrium are usually less of a spontaneous tempest and more of a slow-brewing storm. Significant structural changes in society tend to be deeply rooted; hence contemporary situations usually have antecedents. Thus, the current hyperbole about the “uniqueness” of our times should advisably be treated with some caution. Yet there is a growing sense that the increasing interconnectivity of the world is of a different order of intensity than witnessed before. “Globalization” is the nom du jour for a complex of social transformations, said to encompass elements as diverse as capital, labor, war, disease, ideas, information, images, news, entertainment, drugs, and pollution (Tomlinson, 1999: 165; for different interpretations of this term, see Scholte, 2000: 15–17). National borders are the conventional organizing principle of cultures, economies, and polities, but under current conditions these seem to resemble porous membranes rather than impermeable shells.