Professorship of the Cluster of Excellence – Transnational Governance

Prof. Dr. Jens Steffek

The professorship for Transnational Governance at the Institute of Political Science at the Technical University of Darmstadt is the first in Germany with this denomination. The new field of research thus outlined builds a bridge between the traditional analysis of international relations, research on social actors acting across borders and normative questions of political theory, in particular democratic theory. These different strands of research are linked by the professorship’s focus on questions of legitimacy of governance beyond the nation state. Legitimation as a social process and legitimacy as its result are phenomena that are characterized by the close interlinking of an empirical and a normative dimension, in the sense that in the concept of legitimacy the empirical validity of a political order is made dependent on normative considerations of correctness and appropriateness. Based on this core concept and an empirical-analytical as well as normative-theoretical interest in knowledge, the work of the professorship concentrates on developing a new, critical perspective on the political handling of cross-border problems and conflicts. Terms such as “global governance” or “world governance without world government” were not understood here as a neutral description of an empirical phenomenon, but rather as the discursive dimension of a political project in which certain, in some cases quite novel, institutional solutions for dealing with transnational problems are propagated. These institutional proposals are in need of justification and the practice of their public justification, often in response to public criticism of them, was the focus of the research interest of this cluster professorship. The research activities during the first term could be roughly divided into three sub-areas:

(1) Legitimation narratives of inter- and transnational governance
This research area deals with traditional and current justifications of international governance. The starting point is a research interest in the justifications of international organizations as functional agencies that are not aimed at democratic participation and control, which can be clearly demonstrated historically since the beginning of the 20th century. This vision of international governance is based on an understanding of international organizations as engines of transnational social modernization that legitimize themselves in particular through efficient transnational problem-solving. The history and precise normative content of these justification narratives have been examined since 2010 in a cluster project in which Leonie Holthaus has been involved. In addition, Franziska Müller conducted research at the professorship on the legitimacy of global political regulation from the perspective of developing countries, with a particular focus on gender relations.

(2) Legitimation potentials of civil society participation
One of the possible starting points for expertocratic and democratic justifications of transnational governance is the institutionalization of civil society participation in international organizations. Against the background of a deliberative-participative concept of democracy, the possible advantages of such involvement lie in the fact that, firstly, civil society actors can bring the concerns of citizens directly into the forums of internationalized governance within the framework of non-territorial, functional participation and, secondly, can also contribute significantly to the creation of a transnational political public sphere. Jens Steffek has presented a series of publications on this topic in the reporting period, which deal with the institutional integration of civil society organizations such as NGOs in intergovernmental organizations on the one hand, and with the legitimacy, responsibility and representational achievements of civil society actors themselves on the other.

(3) Global order and the social question
Numerous debates on the legitimacy of inter- and transnational governance are currently revolving around questions of global justice. This has not only been the case since the vehement criticism of globalization in the 1990s, as a look back at the debates on a new world economic order in the 1960s and 1970s makes clear. However, questions of global distribution and distributive justice were largely ignored by the prevailing liberal conception of international governance and also by functional cooperation, not least because these organizations also lack the means to pursue a “global social policy”. Here, the cluster professorship built on earlier work on the question of the social embedding of global political cooperation, in which the prevailing design of embedded liberalism was contrasted with the alternative of redistributive multilateralism. This question is currently being pursued further in a cooperation with Jeffrey McGee (University of Newcastle/Australia) on the possible end of redistributive multilateralism in the area of global climate policy following the Copenhagen climate summit. At the same time, the global political structure is currently undergoing rapid change due to the rapid rise of former developing countries such as Brazil, India and China as new economic powers. This is the starting point for further cooperation between the department and partners in Germany and abroad.

Publications:

*Steffek, Jens (2013): “Explaining Cooperation between IGOs and NGOs – Push Factors, Pull Factors, and the Policy Cycle”, in: Review of International Studies39(4): 993-1013.
*Steffek, Jens (2013): “Transnationalismus und Transnationalisierung in der Soziologie und der IB”, in: Leviathan: Berliner Zeitschrift für Sozialwissenschaft 41 (Sonderheft 28), 204-225 (with S. Mau).
*Steffek, Jens (2013): “Do Members Make a Difference? A Study of Transnational Civil Society Organizations”, European Political Science Review 5(1): 55-81 (with P. Kotzian).
Steffek, Jens (2012) “Awkward Partners: NGOs and Social Movements at the WTO”, in: Amrita Narlikar/Martin Daunton/Robert M. Stern (eds.), Oxford Handbook on the World Trade Organization, Oxford: Oxford University Press, 301-319.
* Steffek, Jens (2011): “Legitimacy and Activities of Civil Society Organizations”, University of Bremen, TranState Working Paper No. 156/2011(with P. Kotzian).
*Steffek, Jens (2010): “Explaining Patterns of Transnational Participation: the Role of Policy Fields”, in: Christer Jönsson/Jonas Tallberg (eds.) Transnational Actors in Global Governance, Basingstoke: Palgrave Macmillan, 67-87.
*Steffek, Jens (2010): “Norms, Persuasion and the New German Idealism in IR”, in: Oliver Kessler et al. (eds.), On Rules, Politics, and Knowledge: Friedrich Kratochwil, International Relations, and Domestic Affairs, Basingstoke: Palgrave Macmillan, 191-201.
*Steffek, Jens (2010): “Introduction: Transnational NGOs and Legitimacy, Accountability, Representation”, in: Jens Steffek/ Kristina Hahn (eds.), Evaluating Transnational NGOs – Legitimacy, Accountability, Representation, Basingstoke: Palgrave Macmillan, 1-25 (with K. Hahn).
*Steffek, Jens (2010): “Assessing the Democratic Legitimacy of Transnational CSOs: Five Criteria”, in: Jens Steffek/Kristina Hahn (eds.), Evaluating Transnational NGOs – Legitimacy, Accountability, Representation, Basingstoke: Palgrave Macmillan, 100-125 (with Ralf Bendrath, Simon Dalferth, Kristina Hahn, Martina Piewitt and Meike Rodekamp).
*Steffek, Jens (2010): “Evaluating NGOs: Prospects for Academic Analysis”, in: Jens Steffek/Kristina Hahn (eds.), Evaluating Transnational NGOs – Legitimacy, Accountability, Representation, Basingstoke: Palgrave Macmillan, 258-264 (with K. Hahn).
*Steffek, Jens (2010): “Civil Society in World Politics: How Accountable Are Transnational CSOs?”, in: Journal of Civil Society 6(3), 237-258 (with M. Piewitt and M. Rodekamp).
*Steffek, Jens (2010): Evaluating Transnational NGOs: Legitimacy, Accountability, Representation, Basingstoke: Palgrave Macmillan (ed., with Kristina Hahn).

* Müller, Franziska (2010): ‘Storming, norming, performing: Implications of the financial crisis in the Southern African Development Community’, in: Göttingen Journal of International Law 2(1), 167-190.
Müller, Franziska (2010): “Negotiated gender relations: Gender as a new norm in international biodiversity policy?”, in: Femina Politica 1/2010, 32-42.
Müller, Franziska (2010): “Die Finanzkrise im südlichen Afrika”, in: Scherrer, Christoph / Thomas Dürmeier/Bernd Overwien (eds.): Perspektiven auf die Finanzkrise, Opladen: Barbara Budrich, 127-146.
Müller, Franziska (2010): “Spätfolgen mit Langzeitwirkung – Die Auswirkungen der Weltwirtschaftskrise auf Südafrika”, in: Blätter des Informationszentrums Dritte Welt, No. 315: 8-10 (with Simone Claar).
Müller, Franziska (2011): “Alles sonnig im Süden? Auswirkungen der Subprime-Krise im Südlichen Afrika”, in: Oliver Kessler (ed.): Die Politische Ökonomie der Subprime-Krise, Wiesbaden: VS Verlag, 117-138.
Müller, Franziska (2011): “Krisendiskurs, Konjunkturpaket, Kollaps – Politische Strategien und Politik-Lernen von Süd-Akteuren”, in: Christoph Scherrer/Thomas Dürmeier/Bernd Overwien (eds.): Perspektiven auf die Finanzkrise, Opladen: Verlag Barbara Budrich, 127-146.

The most important event of the Cluster Professorship outside the research projects listed above was: Jens Steffek, International Conference, ‘The Politics of Talk in International Relations’, University of Bremen, July 27-28, 2010.