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Begin New Search Publishing Institution Institute on Globalization and the Human Condition, McMaster University

31. The Elusive Basis of Legitimacy in Global Governance: Three Conceptions

Author:
Steven Bernstein
Publication Date:
05-2004
Content Type:
Working Paper
Institution:
Institute on Globalization and the Human Condition, McMaster University
Abstract:
The Elusive Basis of Legitimacy in Global Governance: Three Conceptions How to create and maintain legitimacy is arguably the greatest contemporary challenge to global governance and international order. To address this challenge, International Relations scholars, accustomed to a clear distinction between international and domestic legitimacy, have had to borrow extensively from the fields of political philosophy, comparative politics, law, and sociology, which have long investigated the legitimate basis of political authority. These traditions inform three distinct conceptions of legitimacy in this new wave of scholarship: 1) principled legitimacy rooted in democratic politics; 2) legitimacy as law or legalization; and 3) a sociological conception of legitimacy rooted in intersubjective beliefs about appropriateness. Each conception provides only partial insight into the core puzzle animating this literature: what does political authority beyond the state require? The answer can only be found through an examination of the relationship of power, legitimacy, and community, which together constitute political authority.
Topic:
International Relations, Globalization, Government, and International Political Economy

32. Violence as Historical Time

Author:
Timothy Brook
Publication Date:
08-2004
Content Type:
Working Paper
Institution:
Institute on Globalization and the Human Condition, McMaster University
Abstract:
September 11 is a date that has become fixed in the calendar of public memory. For one side in the conflict between the United States and the Islamic network opposed to its power in the Middle East, the shocking display of destruction is remembered as a day of infamy; for the other side, as a day of martyrdom. Which of these claims is true—indeed, whether either is true—depends on the identity and political imagination of the person doing the remembering. But regardless of which meaning the day is now made to bear, the leadership on both sides of the conflict agree on one thing: this was a moment in time that cannot and should not be forgotten. For some, on both sides, 9/11 deserves to be seen as a genuine turning point in history, changing the global political order in a way that allows no going back. For others, again on both sides, it might more usefully be seen as a moment of illumination, when the sudden flash of violence lit a political landscape whose contours theretofore had been difficult to see.1 Whether as a turning point or a moment of illumination, whether as infamy or martyrdom, 9/11 has become a point in time signifying more than the events that took place on that day.
Topic:
Terrorism and History
Political Geography:
United States and Middle East

33. Competition, Contracts and Privatization: Globalization and Public Administration in Developing Countries

Author:
Ahmed Shafiqul Huque
Publication Date:
09-2004
Content Type:
Working Paper
Institution:
Institute on Globalization and the Human Condition, McMaster University
Abstract:
Public administration actors, institutions and processes came under severe criticism in most states, as they seemed to be increasingly inappropriate for performing the tasks expected of them. Western developed nations moved to alleviate the problems by introducing reforms in the public sector. Initially, the reforms aimed at cutting cost in the provision of public services and reducing the size of the bureaucracy. Subsequently, the reforms also attempted to usher in changes in the approach and attitude, and more radical solutions were considered, including the overhaul of public sector organizations and the introduction of market principles.
Topic:
Emerging Markets, Globalization, Politics, and Privatization

34. Globalizing Hope: The Resonance of Zapatismo and the Political Imagination(s) of Transnational Activism

Author:
Alex Khasnabish
Publication Date:
12-2004
Content Type:
Working Paper
Institution:
Institute on Globalization and the Human Condition, McMaster University
Abstract:
“The new distribution of the world excludes 'minorities'. The indigenous, youth, women, homosexuals, lesbians, people of color, immigrants, workers, peasants; the majority who make up the world basements are presented, for power, as disposable. The new distribution of the world excludes the majorities.
Topic:
Globalization, Politics, and Political Theory
Political Geography:
Mexico

35. Democratizing Globalization? Impacts and Limitations of Transnational Social Movements

Author:
Jackie Smith
Publication Date:
12-2004
Content Type:
Working Paper
Institution:
Institute on Globalization and the Human Condition, McMaster University
Abstract:
This paper examines the organizational foundations for global democracy that have been developed through the efforts of generations of activists who have conceptualized their struggles in transnational or global terms. A broad look at the history of transnational activism shows that the “battle of Seattle” against the World Trade Organization had its origins well before the fall of 1999. It also shows that activists from poor countries have played strong roles in shaping the course of past global activism, and they are likely to play central roles in defining the future course of global struggles for democracy and social justice. Finally, we see that transnational activism has helped cultivate skills, collective identities, and perspectives on global interdependence that affect the possibilities for social movement activism today. At the same time, anti-democratic forces led mainly by the U.S. government have sought to preserve existing relations of domination and exploitation against the latest movement challenges. The current “war on terror” serves to mask a longer-term effort by proponents of economic globalization to restrict public opposition to their agenda. I outline some of the key reactions that the U.S. and other Western governments have taken in response to movement challenges, and I suggest several lessons this analysis uncovers for how activists—primarily those in the U.S. and other Western countries—can work to enhance the struggle for a more democratic global system.
Topic:
Globalization, Government, Human Rights, and Non-Governmental Organization
Political Geography:
United States

36. Globalization and Islamisation

Author:
Yassine Essid
Publication Date:
12-2004
Content Type:
Working Paper
Institution:
Institute on Globalization and the Human Condition, McMaster University
Abstract:
In the eyes of many, 'Islam' has become a problem for the whole world, at times verging on a kind of obsession. But the Islam that I discuss in this paper is at the other extreme of a concept based on received ideas, ideas of an Islam that has been reduced to a conceptual totality, a system of thoughts, and a set of practices, forever identical to themselves, that reflect public and private behaviors of the Muslim world. In short, I am referring to a kind of Islam that has been narrowed down to the notions of practices and ideas common to all so-called Muslim societies from Morocco to Pakistan. It is indeed more convenient, when we are unable to understand a civilization, to reduce a whole nation and its people, despite their diversity and particularities, to a faith, a doctrine, and a set of rituals. In this field, the Islamists show a kind of perfect solidarity with the intellectuals of the West.
Topic:
Civil Society, Gender Issues, Globalization, Islam, and Religion
Political Geography:
Pakistan and Morocco

37. Acknowledgement: The Road to Forgiveness

Author:
Joanna Quinn
Publication Date:
01-2003
Content Type:
Working Paper
Institution:
Institute on Globalization and the Human Condition, McMaster University
Abstract:
One of the most daunting tasks faced by a society left in ruin after a period of mass atrocity is the rebuilding of that society. In transitional societies, the outward signs of poverty and destitution often mask the importance of rebuilding those structural social institutions that form the basis of any stable society. Often, scarce resources are allocated to the repair of the physical infrastructure in its many forms, rather than to the repair of the social infrastructure of that same community. Roads and schools, for example, are given priority over issues of justice and security. Reckoning with past injustices, however, is an important step in the process of acknowledgement and forgiveness, leading to the rebuilding of a viable democracy, a restructured judicial system, and strengthened networks of civic engagement, all of which may lead, ultimately, to increased levels of social trust. And these are particularly important in overcoming the causes of conflict within divided transitional societies.
Topic:
Conflict Resolution, Civil Society, Globalization, Human Rights, International Organization, and Sovereignty

38. Content Providers of the World Unite! A Critical Canadian Analysis and Agenda

Publication Date:
02-2003
Content Type:
Working Paper
Institution:
Institute on Globalization and the Human Condition, McMaster University
Abstract:
The theme of the McMaster conference, “Content Providers of the World Unite!,” was a wonderfully provocative re-writing of the slogan on the title page of The Communist Manifesto. This slogan was rewritten as modish media lingo, that pseudo-lingua-franca that bears such a freight of treacherous reassurance under the banner of global culture, the communications revolution, trickle-down prosperity, and endlessly expanding consumer 'choice.' The combination of allusion and revision in the conference title evinces both continuity and change. Indeed, such rewriting is an effective combination of solidarity and resistance. But rewriting alone, while crucial as we will see, will not of itself do the job necessary in the current conjuncture.
Topic:
Globalization and Political Theory
Political Geography:
Canada

39. Content Providers of the World Unite! The Cultural Politics of Globalization

Author:
Susie O'Brien and Imre Szeman
Publication Date:
05-2003
Content Type:
Working Paper
Institution:
Institute on Globalization and the Human Condition, McMaster University
Abstract:
What about that feeling that it's all been done? Not in the techie department, of course; there, the possibility of novelty seems to be unlimited. But in those areas occupied by what platform proprietors call “content providers.” What a phrase! Could anything register the devastation of the spirit more completely than that little generic? Could meaning suffer more complete evacuation? Not since we landed on the moon and found nothing has our cultural unconscious encountered so traumatic a void. (de Zengottia 2002: 37).
Topic:
Civil Society and Globalization

40. History, Globalization, and Globality: Preliminary Thoughts

Publication Date:
03-2003
Content Type:
Working Paper
Institution:
Institute on Globalization and the Human Condition, McMaster University
Abstract:
During reviews of the project application by the Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council, we were asked how the outcomes would differ from results achieved by funding the specific investigations - each of our projects - as standard grants. How would we achieve collaborative results? What would be gained from collaborative effort? What does society gain?
Topic:
Economics, Globalization, and History