The Role of civil society in the democratisation of global governance institutions [Archive]

Kotze

24th February 2011, 01:25

Thanks for these 429 pages of what is ostensibly a work by Saif Al-Islam Alqadhafi, which part part did you enjoy the most?
[page 72] In the second part of the chapter I examine the challenges in realising the ideal of modern liberal individualism on a global level. The liberal vision of justice seeks to allow and protect a wide spectrum of diversity and plurality of opinion. Given the enormous diversity of interests and desires of people throughout the world, the dangers of promoting one vision of the ‘good’ can be seen in the numerous historical examples of the totalitarian states that have been set up to enforce a belief system such as Marxism; the repression of alternative values naturally leads to conflict. I examine the challenges posed by communitarian and utilitarian viewpoints, and argue that liberal individualism is both a practical and worthy ideal that provides support for the concept of Collective Management structures.Barf.
[page 218] America in the 1950s, 1960s and 1970s was democratic but not liberal-cosmopolitan, which caused serious racial conflict because the Anglo-Saxon culture overruled black minorities.Bad stuff happening was the fault of bad ideas, you see, racial conflict was caused by too much democracy, or something. It's important that we explain everything as the result of non-observable stuff going on in people's heads. He goes on:
Liberal democracy is connected to what one might call economic liberalism’, which supports private property over government regulation. The connection between the two runs in both directions. First, economic liberalism tends to support liberal democracy. The rise of independent economic activity created a new group of wealthy individuals who ‘benefited greatly from capitalism, the rule of law, free markets, and the rise of professionalism and meritocracy’ and who therefore ‘supported gradual reforms that furthered these trends’. In the words of the Harvard scholar, Barrington Moore Jr., ‘no bourgeoisie, no democracy’.The text also refers positively to "people" like Jeffrey Sachs and Francis Fukuyama:
Jeffrey Sachs argues that political liberalism allowed individualism to flourish, and this became one of the key factors that caused Britain to be the leader of the industrial revolutions within Europe...That's funny, because according to Ha-Joon Chang Britain's success has a lot to do with protectionism in key industries, but what does he know. Hmmm, let's search the text for "protectionism" (you don't really believe I actually read the whole thing, right?): There is 1 result (page 321), a WTO quote claiming that many "officials in developing countries believe the campaign to bring labour issues into the WTO is actually a bid by industrial nations to undermine the comparative advantage of lower-wage trading partners." He chimes in with this nugget of wisdom:
Human rights should not be allowed to serve as another avenue by which developed nations secure their own interests.All in all it looks like liberal shite that could have been done in 10% of the space if it wasn't for the demands of academia, with a little bit of guilty conscience thrown in (eg. there is some criticism of "Intellectual Property" trade agreements).