Deliberative Global Governance

Global institutions are afflicted by severe democratic deficits, while many of the major problems facing the world remain intractable. Against this backdrop, we explore the prospects for a deliberative approach that puts effective, inclusive, and transformative communication at the heart of global governance. This approach can advance both democratic legitimacy and effective problem solving. Existing institutions such as multilateral negotiations, international organizations, regimes, governance networks, and scientific assessments can be rendered more deliberative and democratic. Such reforms can pave the way for more thoroughgoing transformations in the global order that could involve citizens' assemblies, nested forums stretching from the local to the global, transnational citizens' juries and other mini-publics, crowdsourcing, and a global dissent channel. We pay special attention to climate change, peacebuilding, and global poverty.