Unit 9
Contesting the Governance of Globalization

Overview

This unit examines the extensive and often conflictual relationship that exists between MEIs and CSOs. It includes a discussion of the interactions between CSOs and the major MEIs—the IMF, the World Bank, and the WTO—and the impact of GSMs on these key MEIs that govern the global political economy. The readings provide a case study of the relationship between select GSMs and select MEIs. The textbook, Contesting Global Governance, is a comparative study of the relationships between three social movements: the women’s movement, labour, and environmentalism; and three MEIs: the World Bank, the IMF, and the WTO. The authors have chosen these institutions because they are central to regulating the contemporary world economy. The World Bank, the IMF, and the WTO are state-based institutions that have traditionally included the participation of government representatives only. Recently, these organizations have expanded their scope to include business and civil society leaders in influencing their policy directions. The textbook suggests that the MEIs have created mechanisms to be more inclusive of civil society or social movements in response to the demands of social movements, and because of the institutional need to ensure that policies can be implemented with the co-operation of local populations. The authors refer to the shift to inclusiveness as “complex multilateralism,” meaning that there are multilateral relationships between states, the MEIs, and GSMs. The unit ends with a discussion of the ways that GSMs change the nature of global governance and complex multilateralism.

Learning Objectives

When you have completed Unit 9, you should be able to achieve the following learning objectives:

1. Explain why women’s movements are concerned with World Bank policies
2. Outline the ways that labour movements are distinct from other social movements in their relationship with MEIs such as the WTO
3. Discuss the possibilities and limitations of integrating environmental preservation with the growth-oriented economic policies of MEIs
4. Evaluate the extent to which GSMs contribute to the phenomenon of “complex multilateralism”
5. Assess the extent to which GSMs impact the nature of global governance
6. Discuss the contribution of social movements to global governance
7. Explain the opportunities and challenges for civil society to work within the rules of MEIs