Kasinomics

Broughton-Bradford: Challenges to Global Governance to the G8

James Boughton and Colin Bradford published an article in the IMF-Magazine “Finance and Development” in December 2007 called “Global Governance: New Players, New Rules”, in which they questioned the governance capability of the G8.

They define ideal global governance as such:

The ideal of global governance is a process of cooperative leadership that brings together national governments, multilateral public agencies, and civil society to achieve commonly accepted goals. It provides strategic direction and then marshals collective energies to address global challenges. To be effective, it must be inclusive, dynamic, and able to span national and sectoral boundaries and interests. It should operate through soft rather than hard power. It should be more democratic than authoritarian, more openly political than bureaucratic, and more integrated than specialized.

The G8 can be seen as the embodiement of such an ideal. They are a symbol of cooperative leadership, provide strategic interataction and can marshall collective energies. They operate through soft-power. However, due to demographic changes, changed in demand in energy commodities and global health challenges, the authors claim that the G8 is not representative anymore.

The first and most important front is to reform the process by which national political leaders come together at the summit or ministerial level to discuss common concerns. [...] Because the only truly powerful group—the G-8 summit—is composed exclusively of rich, industrial countries, mostly from the North Atlantic, there is a “democratic deficit” in the current summit grouping and, as a consequence, a void at the apex of the international system.

Unfortunately,the authors do not acknowledge that cooperation between the G8 and Emerging Economies are using a wide variety of channels. There is extensive cooperation through the BIS-hosted institutions, through the OECD and the FATF, through various governmental summits. The Heiligendamm Process of further cooperation with the O5 is an example of how governance is increased without changing the institutional composition of the summit itself.

See also

• G8-Action Plan on Local Bond Markets - Missing Follow-Up Documents
• G8 Action Plan on Local Currency Bond Markets - Overview
• Membership of Key Economies in International Organisations
• London Club
• Global Financial Governance - Definitions by Alexander, Eatwell and Dhumale
• Global Economic Governance and IGOs - definitions by Jacobs
• G8 - Group of Eight
• G7 - Group of Seven
• G22 - Group of Twenty-Two
• G20 - Group of Twenty