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National Research University - Higher School of Economics
Public Policy Department
The Global actors course
Essay
«The Group of Twenty (G8/G20) as a global actor»
Natalia Zvyagina,
public policy department, HSE
checked Galina Petrenko and Nina Belaeva
public policy department, HSE
Moscow
2011
Globalization of the economy has changed the political face of the world.
There were trans-national corporations and structures among the leading
decisionmakers on the global level. The modern world depend on economical
system and financial bodies in any way. Their power was based on the interests of
big business and global market (World Trade Organization, World Monetary Fund,
International Bank for Reconstruction and Development, etc.). One of this
institutions is G8/20. Activists of counter-summits, which held during the meetings
of these organizations, evaluate skeptical legitimacy of this institutions. They
asked: “Who authorized the informal club of few heads of economically developed
countries to make decisions aboute lives of people in all the world each year?”
Many nation-state and interstate associations often are less resources and influence
than the new global players. Global public opinion community reacted to this
change. Today, there is reason for to say that the old antagonistic pair (state and
society) was replaced by new global triangle: state - society – business.
General information about G8\G20: why global?
The Group of Eight (or Group of Twenty) is a forum for the head of
governments of major economies. Originally the group included seven countries:
France, Germany, Italy, Japan, the United Kingdom, United States (1975), and the
Canada (1976). Russia joined the group in 1997, thus becoming the G8. During
the financial and economic crisis that spread across the globe in 2008, the G8
transformes to G20. The following countries were added: Australia, Argentina,
Brazil, India, Indonesia, China, Mexico, Saudi Arabia, Turkey, South Africa,
Republic of Korea. G20 members were called upon to further strengthen
international cooperation. The scale of the organization became truly global.
G20 declares that its goal “to balance membership of developed and
developing countries helped the world deal effectively with the financial and
economic crisis''. Collectively, the G8 nations comprised «53.0% of global
nominal GDP and 42.5% of global GDP (PPP)»1 and G20 states contribute to
«84.1% and 82.2% of the world's economic growth by nominal GDP and GDP
(PPP)». G20 influent on the basis of the existing financial system and actually
governs the world.
Formally, the G20 is not so much an concrete actor as a format for regular
meetings for presidents (who meet annually) and finance ministers and national
Central Bank Governors (who meet four times a year), foreign ministers and
environment ministers of member states.
Priority issues for G20 are energy security, struggle against international
terrorism, proliferation of weapons of mass destruction, international trade,
financing for development and other important topics for international community.
The main questions on the G20 summit are financial questions.
G8\G20 as a public policy actor
G20 is one of the most important global actors, because only this global
institution is a global political body. Other new global institutions focus on
economical issue mostly. G20 is a platform for the connecting with the
representatives of national governments.
Government of G8 member-state have democratic regime. People in these
countries can influent on the government at national level. And citizens would use
this possibility in sphere of international relations to. G8\G20 must be transparent
and accountable to citizens. Although This is not always possible in reality.
If we presented the global community as a thre-esector model, than G20 we
put in the governmental sector.
Other international financial bodies is more closed structure. It is possible
because the key stakeholders are businessman in it. They fink as businessman.
Commercial secret is important values for them. To be opened is not effectively for
them as in business. We can say the most part of international financial bodies is
the organizations from business-sector.
For examples, International Monetary
1 The official G-20 website - http://www.g20.org/about_what_is_g20.aspx — 2011
Fund (IMF), the World Bank (WB), the Organisation for Economic Co-operation
and Development (OECD) and the World Trade Organization (WTO) and free
trade treaties like the North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA) have probusiness goals in the first place. Business sector is most strong at the global level.
But modern society study to influent on it. The best example of this is social
reporting of transnational corporations and development of corporate citizenship.
G20 as a global actor communicates with society too. For examples, changing
of number of members-states is the result of influence of public opinion and antiglobalists's criticism as well .
Global public sector
Global civil society and G8\G20
As the twenty-first century begins, major new global political challenges
changed the civil society. Different civil movement united for to observe and
evaluate the new global institution. The international activists are especially
opposed to "globalization abuse" and the international institutions that promote
neoliberalism without regard to ethical standards. They opposed to reduction of
public-sector regulation as well.
J. Keane is one of best researchers of civil society phenomenon on the global
level. He is founder of the Centre for the Study of Democracy and Professor of
Politics at the University of Westminster. He said: "Global civil society is a
neologism of the 1990s. It is a big idea with a radical difference. When used by its
friends as an ethical standard, it champions the political vision of a world founded
on non-violent, legally sanctioned power-sharing arrangements among many
different and interconnected forms of socio-economic life that are distinct from
governmental institutions. The pluralist ideal of a global civil society openly
challenges previous big ideas"2
Many researchers often equate Global civil society and the anti-globalization
movement. Anti-globalist is definition of different communities, united under a
single and new for the world's slogans: "Against the power of corporations" and
"Peace is not a commodity!". These slogans reflect the disagreement of many
social movements with the power of the new financial elite.
Anti-globalization movement transformed dramatically for the last
10 years. Big parts of it begun the climatic movement. Many
organizations continue to work with its traditional topics but only on
global levels. However a broad public debate on globalization created a new
level of public spheres. Global public spheres have begun to influent on
world d i p l o ma c y a n d g l o b a l b u s i n e s s .
The authors of the review «Global Civil Society»3 providing 4 main groups
within the global civil society:
1. "Supports" - supporters of the neo-liberal globalization scenario;
2. "Reformist" - a group for democratic improvement of the existing global
system, this group often act through practical activities, and not through the
instruments of pressure;
3. "Alternative" – this groups promote a another model of globalization
designed to solve or provoked by the highlighted its environmental, political and
cultural issues;
4. "Isolationist" - mainly anti-capitalist groups and left-radical and anarchist,
these groups promote a global model of its political system, for examples,
anarchists or trockists.
Different public groups from this classification work with the G8\G20.
Supporters can participate in the CivilG8. The consultations with NGOs have
become a tradition of the preparatory stage of G8 summits. The main aim of such
2
3
Keane J. Global Civil Society? – in: Global Civil Society 2001, Oxford, 2003.
Global Civil Society - 2003, p.69.
consultations is to clarify the civil society position on priority issues determined by
the presiding country. For examples, this event was organized during summit in
Russia in 2006. At the NGO initiative there was created National Working Group
with Ella Pamfilova as its coordinator. “The main aim of the nongovernmental
organizations who launched this "Civil G8-2006" project is to preserve the most
positive, achieved during the previous years in the sphere of interaction with the
Group of Eight (G8) and to try to put this interaction to a new level. The "Civil G82006" is meant for discussion of the issues on the agenda of the G8 Summit by the
civil society organizations' representatives from various countries as well as by
those interested from business and governmental spheres”4.
Alternative and isolationist groups participate in contra summit annual.
Opponents of the G20
G8\20 summits is a cause for the most massive and most radical protests in
many countries. The government made a political decision to spend millions of
dollars to security of a meeting of leaders of member countries.
The conflict between the G8\20 and the society reflects the division of
spheres of public and private law, public policy and the commercial world and
commercial decision-making practice. G20 is a political institute that should
control the business as citizens believe. Today, business corporations have
opportunities comparable with the power of the state (private research centers,
private armies, internal corporate intelligence etc.). «Amnesty International» says
in its annual reports that multinational corporations are the source of human rights
violations as well as the state. Regular dependence is the raise of demands of the
citizens to the business organization. This political demands: "Transparency and
accountability!".
There are 3 main reasons for active protest again G8\G20 summit. Each
reason are is the concrete problem.
4
http://civilg8.ru/
Anti-globalists activists protest against illegitimacy of the new global political
institutions. G20 is illegitimacy. Presidents do not agree on solutions before G20.
The social movements can not influence on the agenda of the G8 rapidly. For
example, activists required including the problem of renewable energy to the G8
agenda during 10 years; at the same time the oil lobby blocked this topic.
Presidents of member-state countries are not accountable before citizens for their
decisions taken at the Summits. This is the first problem.
The second problem is the high cost of summits. Summits was organized in
expensive resorts. German summit passed in the Hailigendamme Resort in 2007 on
the Baltic Sea. During the Italian summit-2009 presidents lived on Sardinia. All
island was closed for them. Many activists think that the summit is a holiday for
Presidents paid from the budget. The cost of the russian summit-2006 was more in
400% then budget for social sphere in the Sankt-Petersburg where summit hald.
One of the goals of anti-summit participators to show for people and for authority
that G8\G20 events is not profit for them. German activists blocked the summit at
all. It was a grate victory of the anti-G8 movement.
Protection and security measures are expensive to. Police represses the
political activists from the radical organizations. The kinds of violence that
protesters have experienced, such as the pre-dawn raids, the strip-searches, the
surveillance, and pre-sentence incarceration happen all the time. This is a political
prosecution. In 2010 the Canadian state's strategy after the G20 has been to cast a
wide net over those who mobilized against the summit (over 1, 000 detained and
over 300 charged in Toronto, for examples) and then to single out those they
perceived to be leaders. Police repressions provoke new protests. And It is a third
problem.
Protest movement has powerful not from the legal system, but from making
decisions collectively. It reflect the goals of activists. And new actions prove it.
. The continuation of development of resistance to corporate power and is a
movement occupy Wall Street. It (#OCCUPYWALLSTREET) is a leaderless
people powered «movement for democracy that began in America on September
with an encampment in the financial district of New York City. Inspired by the
Egyptian Tahrir Square uprising and the Spanish acampadas, we vow to end the
monied corruption of our democracy»5. This movement was coordinated throw
social networks (facebook and twitter). One of the causes of this protest is a low
level of publicity of financial institutions. This is a logical continuation of the
activities initiated by anti-globalists.
Conclusions
G20 is a global actor. It is the institution of global public spheres. G20
include inter-sectoral communication. This is the most perspective platform for
interaction between global business, global society and the global authorities at the
international level.
Global civil society support for democratic principles and values of public
participation in decision making. Global civil society requires publicity of new
global players - trans-national corporations and their institutions. Global civil
society makes public what have existed and developed under the cover of Private
Law. Tools of the global transparency help to develop the global civil control for
this: the Internet, the resources for to collect data such as maps, "Ushahidi", etc.
Global civil society are ready for the dialog. And global public claims it. I
fink, if G20 will not work as a place for global public discussions between
business, society and the authorities, It should be closed.
The Liberal strategy to free business from government restrictions loses
relevance, if the global business becomes stronger states. Now the society claims
the need for restrictions. This can be seen as a revival the social-democratic model
in the new global level. Equal actors have national and international public
authority, global business institutions and civil society in the global model.
5
http://occupywallst.org
Sourses:
1) The official G-20 website - http://www.g20.org/about_what_is_g20.aspx
— 2011
2) The official website of CivilG8 - http://civilg8.ru/
3) The website - http://occupywallst.org
Literature:
4) Keane J. Global Civil Society? – in: Global Civil Society 2001, Oxford,
2003.
5) Global Civil Society - 2003, p.69.
6) Бек У. Что такое глобализация? Ошибки глобализма - ответы на
глобализацию - М.: Прогресс-Традиция, 2001. - 304 с.
7)
Богуславский
А.
Первый
кризис
«антиглобализма»
//
http://www.perspektivy.info/print.php?ID=43852 — 2009 г.
8) Бузгалин А.В. Кризис: альтернативы будущего (глобальный контекст
и российская специфика). – М., 2009 г.
9) Бузгалин А.В., Колганов А.И. Социальная экономика: теория и
практика. - М., 2009 г.
10) Перегудов С.П., Семененко И.С. Корпоративное гражданство:
концепции, мировая практика и российские реалии — М., 2007 г.