The Visual Du Jour – Multi-Layered Governance
March 11, 2011 by SocProf and tagged Global Governance, Politics
Via Cory Doctorow, a neat Venn diagram of the multiple layers of governance in Europe:
And that is without mentioning the institutions that are part of the EU, such as the European Parliament, the European Commission, and the various Council of Ministers.
Such a complex structure is also visible when one looks at the organization of the United Nations, structured by agencies, instead of countries:
The difference between these two diagrams is that the first one reflects the political dilemmas and decisions being debated at the national or regional level. Parliaments still have to decide which treaties to sign, which organization to join and which type of integration they are ready for.
The existence of different zones accommodates national decision-making processes while at the same time providing integration “à géometrie variable”. It also provides more flexibility (countries can move in and out of the zones they are in) than the more bureaucratic structure of the UN. And the diagram of the UN does not really reveal the fact that some agencies are more powerful than others (think the WTO). In contrast, the European diagram clearly shows which countries are part of the core group.
And, of course, these diagrams do not include the layers of global and regional civil society organizations. All these layers make global governance a complicated affair.
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