Transnational Actors and Global Governance
International cooperation today takes place between many more actors than individual countries. Political science research at the University studies how non-governmental organisations influence world politics.
The forms of international cooperation have changed in recent decades. Volunteer organisations, trade unions, businesses and other non-governmental parties play an increasingly important role in decisions made by the World Health Organisation, the World Bank and other international bodies. The successful research at the Department of Political Science combines the fields of international relations, political theory and European politics in the analysis of the conditions and impact of non-governmental influence.
Do transnational parties affect the ability of international bodies to solve problems in everything from environmental issues to human rights? When more and more power is moved away from the national level, does non-governmental influence increase the legitimacy of decisions made at the international level? Or could the issues driven by these parties favour certain interests more, such as the Western world, at the expense of developing countries?
Research in this area also studies how democratic the transnational parties are themselves, as well as so-called public-private partnerships, in which public and private parties work together to solve specific problems. The research group has been able to grow rapidly, thanks to large long-term grants from the Swedish Central Bank's Jubilee Fund and the European Research Council. One of the many advances has been the construction of a unique database of the most important international bodies and how they cooperate with non-governmental parties.
Web editor:
Paul Parker
Last updated:
November 23, 2011
Source: Communications Office
