Globalisierung - Realität und Ideologie.pdf - FEN

11
Anhang 4
GOVERNANCE IN A GLOBAL SOCIETY
THE SOCIAL DEMOCRATIC APPROACH
EQUAL OPPORTUNITIES AND PARTICIPATION FOR WOMEN AND MEN,POOR AND
RICH, DEVELOPING, TRANSITIONAL AND DEVELOPED COUNTRIES
SUMMARY
I The Social Democratic Approach to Governance in a Global Society
1. Under the conditions of globalisation, democratic governance has to be reinvented. The aim of the social
democratic movement is to reconcile its historical values - social justice and democracy - with the new
challenges, tasks, forms and instruments of politics that globalisation will bring about. A global governance
concept has to be developed opposing the neo-liberal market ideology, the neo-conservative agenda, and
the unilateralist approach. This alternative has to bind the dynamics of the global market to social, ecological,
and democratic values. This requires citizens, women and men alike, their organisations, parties,
parliaments and governments to act globally and in accordance with democratic principles.
2. Globalisation is calling into question very basic elements of the political and social order we are used to.
The nation-state which for more than a century has been a central element of the political, social and
economic order of more and more of the world’s societies, is losing strength and importance. New transnational
units, like global and regional organisations or trans-national corporations, and sub-national units,
like increasingly autonomous sub-regions and municipalities are taking over parts of the state’s discretionary
capacities. In many policy fields, domestic solutions alone are no longer sufficient or adequate and have to
be replaced or accompanied by internationally coordinated political efforts.
3. Globalisation is a little like technological progress. In itself, politically or on an ethical level, it is neither
good nor bad. Technological progress has allowed us to manufacture both increasingly devastating weapons
and increasingly effective medicines and vaccines. The same is true of globalisation, which we may define
as integration on a global scale of both commercial exchange and financial flows and of cultural contacts and
information.
4. Globalisation is a source of wealth – firstly of economic wealth. More and more jobs across the world are
dependent on international trade and/or have been created by trans-border investment. Thanks to
economies of scale, wider markets lead to increased productivity and thus to more rapid growth in incomes
and the standard of living.
5. Globalisation is also a source of cultural and social wealth thanks to the exchanges it generates. It leads
to greater international openness, access to the cultures of other countries and learning about diversity. It
may become a source of greater freedom by allowing all the world’s citizens to construct an identity beyond
the strict confines of language, nation, religion or place of birth.
6. Globalisation opens up chances and opportunities, especially for those who have not profited from the
economic order of the post-World War II era. Hitherto unincorporated areas are being integrated into global
trade and new technological and productive centres are springing up all over the world. The end of the Cold