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

    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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