Title

"Global Civil Society" and the Political Depoliticization of Global Governance

Authors

Authors

H. M. Jaeger

Comments

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Abbreviated Journal Title

Int. Polit. Sociol.

Keywords

UNITED-NATIONS; INTERNATIONAL-RELATIONS; WORLD-POLITICS; HUMAN-RIGHTS; SYSTEM; International Relations; Political Science; Sociology

Abstract

Activists, officials, and academics alike have often linked observations about an emerging global civil society to an incipient democratization of world politics. Global civil society is assumed to bring public scrutiny and "bottom-up" politics to international decision making "from outside" formal political institutions. Based on an analysis of uses of the concept of global civil society in 1990s global governance discourse (especially related to the major UN world conferences), this paper argues that the presumed democratization of world politics is better understood in terms of a double movement: on the one hand, "global civil society" depoliticizes global governance through the promotion of "human security" and "social development"; on the other hand, the emerging international public sphere (in the UN context) operates as a subsystem of world politics rather than opposing the system from outside. Practices of depoliticization are thus part of the political logic of (neo-)liberal global governance. The argument draws on Luhmann's systems theory and Foucault's analysis of governmentality.

Journal Title

International Political Sociology

Volume

1

Issue/Number

3

Publication Date

1-1-2007

Document Type

Article

Language

English

First Page

257

Last Page

277

WOS Identifier

WOS:000207981300004

ISSN

1749-5679

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