Book Review: Jan Wouters, Antoon Braekman, Matthias Lievens, and Emilie Bécault (eds), Global Governance and Democracy: A Multidisciplinary Analysis
| Published date | 01 November 2017 |
| DOI | 10.1177/1478929917716891 |
| Author | Sujay Ghosh |
| Date | 01 November 2017 |
| Subject Matter | Book ReviewsInternational Relations |
Book Reviews 625
bullied by other countries. Foreign policy is
not aggressive enough to make the world stand
up and take notice of India and the diplomats
are satisfied with making India dance to the
tune of other great powers in the system.
To take India out of this quagmire, Karnad
presents a list of targeted solutions. These
require India to actively engage with Central
Asia, Africa, the Gulf and Southeast Asia.
According to the author, to pursue ‘strategic
autonomy’ as an end in itself instead of a means
to an end is foolhardiness.
I would categorise this book as an effort to
make India act on the basis of the theory of
‘offensive realism’. The author is very con-
vincing in his arguments and backs up his the-
ory with hard facts. Karnad’s approach to make
India a great power is steeped in pragmatism.
However, one gets a feeling that his approach
is not people-centric. Pursuing power for the
sake of power and thereby making India a great
power without being inclusive of the most mar-
ginalised people in the country is not a line of
thinking many would be comfortable with.
Gazala Fareedi
(Jawaharlal Nehru University)
© The Author(s) 2017
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DOI: 10.1177/1478929917716892
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Global Governance and Democracy: A
Multidisciplinary Analysis by Jan Wouters,
Antoon Braekman, Matthias Lievens, and
Emilie Bécault (eds). Cheltenham: Edward Elgar,
2015. 304pp., £80.00 (h/b), ISBN 9781781952610
One of the major challenges before contempo-
rary social sciences, both for theorists and
practitioners, is to integrate ‘democracy’ with
‘governance’ – at times, they seem to have dif-
ferent domains altogether. This ambitious vol-
ume does not only intend to study them
together but also to integrate them at global
level. Accordingly, it plans to assess critically
‘the current research on global democracy and
governance’ (p. 4) and advance the understand-
ing from a multidisciplinary perspective.
In Part I, the contributors approach the key
terms from the perspective of political philoso-
phy. Issues such as legitimacy, participation,
accountability and representation find a
thorough theoretical treatment here. Part II pro-
vides an empirical assessment of these theoreti-
cally discussed issues in the major areas of
contemporary international concern: climate
change, the global economy, international secu-
rity and peacekeeping and human rights. The
debates are expressed here in very attractive
terms: ‘climate governance’, ‘economic govern-
ance’ and ‘security governance’. There is also a
very useful discussion of the issue of corporate
social responsibility. The problems and pros-
pects of the application of the idea of democratic
governance are all thoroughly discussed. The
next two sections are overwhelmingly theoreti-
cal in orientation and they richly inform us on
the further research agenda.
This book is rich in information and discus-
sion, and each chapter is based on a keen analy-
sis of the pros and cons of various issues, themes
and sub-themes, with an impressive list of refer-
ence. The volume would be particularly appeal-
ing to researchers and advanced students of
International Relations and Public Administration
and Policy. Social scientists in general would
also find this book a useful source of reference.
At times, however, it appears that the gen-
eral theme of the book, particularly its research
agenda, is a bit too idealistic. The authors
believe that democratic governance may not be
sustainable in individual nation states; hence, it
should be attempted at the global level. The
book accepts that democracy at the level of the
state is important but fails to identify any defi-
nite starting point for its global project of dem-
ocratic governance.
This is of course no easy task, particularly
when nationalism with socio-historical orienta-
tions is becoming stronger within Western coun-
tries. On the other hand, the state plays an
important role in the developing world and is
crucial for socio-economic development. These
factors pose further challenges for the book’s
contributors. Nonetheless, Global Governance
and Democracy bears the mark of seasoned
scholarship with the support of a reputed insti-
tute, and therefore, it contributes immensely to
the fund of knowledge in the social sciences.
Sujay Ghosh
(Vidyasagar University, India)
© The Author(s) 2017
Reprints and permissions: sagepub.co.uk/journalsPermissions.nav
DOI: 10.1177/1478929917716891
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