Interdependences among the world’s societies and between humankind and the biosphere have developed at an accelerated pace without the powers’ adapting their forms of organization to such change. Present global governance, based on relations among sovereign states, is not equipped to take up the challenges of today’s world and suffers from lack of legitimacy. The global village seems devoid of rules, cohesion, redistribution of resources, and justice, as if it only existed for the benefit of its most powerful members. A new architecture is therefore necessary to institute democratic and legitimate global governance.
In June 2001, some twenty experts closely related to the Charles Léopold Mayer Foundation and competent in fields as diverse as finance, water, energy, soils, security, the environment, met to think about the lessons each had drawn regarding the range and limits of international regulations in their respective expertise area. The sum of these roughly constitutes the present state of global governance. Each was asked to state the limits of present governance and perspectives for the future. This Proposal Paper compares the findings of this meeting with the ten principles for governance, from local to global, as presented in the corresponding Proposal Paper. The group's participants regrouped the proposals under a more limited number of principles (six) and gave them concrete expression by correlating each of these general principles with a number of specific proposals, for a total of thirty-six. Following are the thirty-six proposals classified according to the corresponding principle:
Principle 1: Providing a foundation for legitimate global democracy
_ Proposal 1: State the objectives of global governance in constitutional form.
_ Proposal 2: Make the Charter of Human Responsibilities the third constitutional pillar of the international community.
_ Proposal 3: Set up a ranking of norms and rules that is common to all multilateral institutions.
_ Proposal 4: Define the limits of global-governance intervention on the basis of the Charter of Human Responsibilities.
_ Proposal 5: State the "big global causes" that are the subject of the global policies implemented by all international agencies.
_ Proposal 6: Present an annual report on the state of the world.
_ Proposal 7: Set up a democratic framework in which to draw up international agendas.
_ Proposal 8: Guarantee equity of treatment and sanctions in all international agreements.
_ Proposal 9: Set up an independent international institution to counsel and support the weaker players.
_ Proposal 10: Make the responsibility of international-institution agents effective.
Principle 2: Institute a democratic global community
_ Proposal 11: Institute regional communities.
_ Proposal 12: Institute socioprofessional communities.
_ Proposal 13: Institute regional federations and a world federation of parliaments.
_ Proposal 14: Organize a constituent assembly for the planet in 2008.
_ Proposal 15: Set up a global tax base.
Principle 3: Define common rules for the management of the different categories of assets
_ Proposal 16: Agree on a typology of goods and services and define the limits of those that can come under market control.
_ Proposal 17: Define the global common goods and finance their protection.
_ Proposal 18: Establish common global rules for the management of natural resources.
_ Proposal 19: Organize the global pooling of goods that are increased when shared.
Principle 4: Manage trade and sharing, and manage the ace of evolution
_ Proposal 20: Structure independent information systems on a global scale.
_ Proposal 21: Support the emergence of Internet-based learning communities
_ Proposal 22: Set up a system to measure trade and sharing and the actual degree of development.
_ Proposal 23: Institute regular sabbatical periods for the international community.
_ Proposal 24: Make the precautionary principle a common model of responsibility.
_ Proposal 25: Draw up very long-term strategies in the vital fields.
Principle 5: Privilege and organize relations
_ Proposal 26: Train players in an integrated and partner-based approach.
_ Proposal 27: Organize the relationship between global governance and states according to the active subsidiarity principle.
_ Proposal 28: Recognize the privileged role of international networks of territorial authorities.
_ Proposal 29: Systematize cooperation among multilateral agencies.
_ Proposal 30: Set up the conditions for partnership between public and private players.
_ Proposal 31: Build the contractual framework for partnership among players.
Principle 6: Renew the methods
_ Proposal 32: Set up global public forums for citizen debates.
_ Proposal 33: Grant the General Secretariat of the United Nations
_ Proposal monopoly for international decisions.
_ Proposal 34: Entrust to a council of the wise the responsibility of drawing the attention of governing players.
_ Proposal 35: Hold an annual world parliament.
_ Proposal 36: Set up a permanent audit of multilateral institutions.
Although these proposals are not all immediately operational, the general principles constitute a good framework for the absolutely indispensable promotion of a legitimate, democratic, and efficient global governance.
Éditions Charles Léopold Mayer / Publication year: 2003 / Number of pages: 200 / Reference: PP007 / ISBN: 2-84377-070-X /
