What does it mean?
The project on Civil Society and Accountable Global Governance (CS-AGG) was launched in mid-2006 as a trial run for the Building Global Democracy programme.
The project starts with the observation that one of the major shortfalls in contemporary democracy arises when global governance institutions fail adequately to answer to the people whose lives they affect.
In particular several of the key mechanisms of democratic accountability that operate in relation to modern states (such as elected leadership, parliamentary oversight, and nonpartisan courts) are not available to citizens in respect of global regulatory bodies. In these circumstances many people have looked to civil society activities to fill the accountability gaps. Yet how far have civil society interventions in practice delivered more democratically accountable global governance?
How are we going to do it?
To assess this question, the CS-AGG project assembled 15 authors from 5 continents to prepare case studies on civil society engagement of 13 global-scale regulatory institutions. The diverse bodies examined include the United Nations, the Group of Eight, the World Fair Trade Organisation, and the Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers. Some two dozen discussants from civil society associations and official agencies across the world assisted the academic researchers with critical feedback on their draft studies at a workshop held in Gothenburg, Sweden.
How will our findings be shared?
Publications
The CS-AGG project has generated half a dozen working papers. Final versions of the case studies have been published together with general conclusions in a book released in late 2010 through Cambridge University Press entitled Building Global Democracy? Civil Society and Accountable Global Governance.
Presentations
Several CS-AGG authors have given presentations of their studies at:
- United Nations [1], USA
- International Monetary Fund [2], USA
- Academic Council on the United Nations System [3], Trinidad
- Globalizations Studies Network Conference [5], Canada
Read more about:
gothenburg workshop [6] | authors [7] | discussants [8] | publications [9] | presentations [10]