Civil Society Participation in Global Governance. A Road to Empowerment?

Abstract: Whether it is global warming or financial crisis, more and more challenges we face today are increasingly of a global or transnational character. As global governance increasingly has been perceived as having a democratic deficit however, increased forms of participation by non-state actors in global governance processes has attracted scholarly attention. This study centres on what the conditions are for these practices to serve as potential entry-points for traditionally disempowered and marginalized social groups to influence global governance. Can they work in their favour? Drawing on a neo-gramscian perspective operative questions are derived for examining established practices of civil society participation in three major institutions of global governance; the World Bank, the International Monetary Fund and the World Trade Organisation. Having relied on gathering documented information and secondary sources the study finds the conditions not to be favourable. The narrow scope and thresholds for marginalized groups to access these forms of participation arguably reinforces existing asymmetries. While some stakeholder practices are geared for greater responsiveness to the concerns of marginalized group, these are not without some key ambiguities.