call for human rights, equality, and freedom for everyone .... his chapter calls the "global flagship ... sis of new corporate challengers like Samsung in Korea or.
call forhumanrights, equality, and freedom foreveryone Habermas calls the "nodalpoints" in the international isa good reminder ofwhat somuch ofdemocratictheory communications network,providinga vibrantdemo is about.But his prescription-democracy as emancipa intolegitimate craticprocessthatisthentransformed dem tionthrough securing humanrights-leaves asmanyquan ocraticpolicyin thepublic sphereof globalgovernance, dariesas itprovidesanswers. Within thestate,democratic encouraging globalconsensuson thefundamental rights theory's richtradition has also beenaboutwho rulesand aboutwhichGoodhartwrites(Between FactsandNorms: how,aboutgovernmental limits, and, importantly, about Contributions toa DiscursiveTheory ofLaw andDemoc theroleof law.Ithas spokentomeans asmuch as ends, 1996, p. 373). racy, maybemore so.Yet,Goodhart addressestheseconcerns politicaltheory's If,asGoodhart asserts, value lies in by implying thattheyareonly instrumental to thefinal providing a reasonable explanation of politicalrealities as of we find them,it seems thatHabermas's renditionof goal.And his solutionisnot basedon therecognition institutions emerging andhabitsof communallifebuton democracyand human rightsin theeraof globalization more nearlymatches thenascentrealities theherculeantaskof transforming existing politicalcul of globalized tureglobally. politicsat thebeginning of thetwenty-first That century. At theinternational seem doesnotmean, however,thattheauthor'sreasonedargu level,theauthor's prescriptions farfromthereality. To his credit,he giveslengthy atten ment foremancipatory politicsshouldbe takenlightly. ofdemocracy tionto thepromotion at theUnitedNations The broadeningof human rights, both inmeaningand of a democratic and to thehumanrights agendaof thatinstitution andof application,isat thecenter globalagenda. a otherintergovernmental organizations (pp.182-90).How Goodhartmakes strongcase forpushingthatagendato UN andmostdemocracy-promotion itslimits. ever,inthecaseof the actors,themantrahas not been "democracyas human rights," but rather"democracyis a human right"(see Digital Formations: IT and New Architectures in the BoutrosBoutros-Ghali, An AgendaforDemocratization, Global Realm. EditedbyRobertLathamandSaskia Sassen. 1996,andKofiA.Annan,"Democracyasan International Princeton: Princeton University Press,2005. 367p. $65.00 cloth, Issue,"GlobalGovernance 8 [April-June 2002]: 135-42). $27.95 paper. 18 The currenttrendis topropup "failed"territorial states D01:10.1017/Si5375927070721 Lockeanmodelsofdemocratic and introduce practice. A. Hart,Indiana Jeffrey University As forglobalcivilsociety, Goodhartoverstates what its collectionof essaysaboutwhat the advocatesclaim.Most of itssupporterssee global civil This isan interesting A socialformation societyas a movementtowarda more democraticand editorscall"digitalformations." issome not as accomplishedfact thingin societythatisemerging orderedinternational withouta singlefound system, and tending (Mary Kaldor,GlobalCivilSociety, 2003;MichaelEdwards, ingevent,in itsearlystagesof development, Civil Society, the toward a variable structure and of nature(p.9). Despite this, 2004). Probably best interpretation the interconnections among global civil society,inter "youshouldbe able to identify a coherentconfiguration and oforganization, nationalorganizations, and theconstruction of rights space,and interaction" (p. 10). Severalof thesocialformations studiedby theauthorsin thisvol democracyin thenew era can be foundin theworksof Haber ume areonlypartlydigital:thatis, theycombinedigital Habermas,butGoodhartdoesnot address Juirgen mas and his theories. LikeGoodhart,Habermas argues andnondigitalelements. They areall,however, subjectto thatthelegitimacy ofdemocratic decisionsina societyor which involvesthe"rendering of facetsof "digitization," exercised socialand politicallifein a digitalform"(p. 16). One organizationarisesfrompopular sovereignty important reasonforstudying digitalformations is that within theRousseauianconstraints of equalityand free of existing hierarchies dom ("PopularSovereigntyas Procedures,"in James somearepotentially "destabilizing of scale and nestedhierarchies"(p. 19), while others Bohman,ed.,Deliberative Democracy: EssaysonReasonand them.An exampleof theformeris theopen Habermasmaintainsthat reinforce Politics, 1997).UnlikeGoodhart, the surgein transnational sourcesoftware movement(as chronicledhereby Steve organizations encouragedby of globalization theporosity allowsforan emergent par Weber); an exampleof thelatteriswhatDieterErnst in hischaptercallsthe"globalflagship networks" createdby ticipatory democracythroughcivildiscourseabout seri multinational ous issueson an integrated corporations. global/local network,leading large The introductory chapterof thisvolumedoes an excel will-andpolicy-formation todemocratic (GiovannaBor ina TimeofTerror: lentjob of providinga theoretical forthe DialogueswithJur radori, Philosophy underpinning Bach byJonathan genHabermasand Jacques Derrida,2004). International restof thevolume.The secondchapter, on thegrowing ofnon arenotyetat thecenterof a developedcos andDavid Stark,focuses presence organizations mopolitandemocracy, but theyare increasingly people governmental organizations (NGOs) in theinternational centeredratherthanstatecentered. The plethoraof trans systemas an exampleof a networking styleof organiza nationalactorstodayinglobalcivilsocietyprovide what tionincontrast with and sometimesinoppositionto the September 2007 This content downloaded from 140.182.176.13 on Sat, 01 Aug 2015 16:55:02 UTC All use subject to JSTOR Terms and Conditions
1Vol. 5/No. 3
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Book Reviews
Relations I International
territorially based system of nation-states. The thirdand organizational tocompeteeffectively principles withgroups relatedchapterby SaskiaSassencomparesglobalcapital of engineersand terrorists organizedon networking markets with globalelectronic activistnetworks, arguing principles. thatglobal capitalmarketsreproduce InChapters8 and 9, respectively, preexisting power HaywardAlkerand whileactivists work toundermine structures generally them. WarrenSackdescribetheirefforts toprovidesoftware tools The explanation forthedifference ismainlyinhow results fortherepresentation ofcomplexverbaldata.Alker'schap In capitalmarkets,deep areobtainedin thetwosystems: terisfocusedon early fortransboundary warningsystems ina limited financial knowledgeisoftenconcentrated num while Sacks isdirectedat analysisof verylarge conflicts, berofurbanlocations, whereasinactivist networks, global scaleconversations on theInternet. Both approachesare politicalgoals are achievedbymeans of the "knowing interesting, but thesechaptersseemtobe a bitperipheral multiplication of localpractices"(p. 83). The latterlends to thecentralpointof thevolume. itselftodistributed while the and parallelsocialprocesses, The lasttwochapters dealwith theimplications of the former does not. Internetfordemocracies(Chapter10) and forauthori DieterErnst'sessayon globalflagship inChap tarianregimes(Chapter11), and China specifically networks in ter4 arguesthateconomicglobalization has led toa type thecaseof the latter. Lars-ErikCedermanand PeterA. of international cre Kraus assertthat"information competitioninwhichmultinationals technology playsa prom ate and maintain alliancesof suppliersinternationally inentrole in thedebateabout how topromotea closer The latterare used through digitalinformation union of Europe'speoples" (p. 283). They argue fora systems. certaintypesof knowl todiffuse in contrastwith logic of bounded institutionalism, by globalcorporations at lower nationalsubstantialism edge"togainquickaccesstoskillsandcapabilities and civicvolunteerism, in con theflagships' costoverseaslocationsthatcomplement core ceptualizing democracyin theEuropeanUnion, inorder toput the roleof theInternetin itsproperperspective. competencies" (p. 91). This isa usefulinsight consistent with a growing num They posit thatcyberdemocracy alonewill not help "the in demosanddemocracy... todevelopin tandem"(p.305), berof empiricalstudiesof international collaborations industries. My onlycomplaintis thatit especiallysincemost Europeans stillgetmuch of their high-technology thecontinued dominanceofglobalfirms information overly emphasizes aboutEurope fromtelevision and not from likeIBM,Microsoft,and Intelat theexpenseof an analy the Internet. Apparentlytheirtargetis a thesisput for sisof newcorporatechallengers likeSamsunginKorea or ward by someEuropeans,thattechnology alonemay be Acer inTaiwanorLenovoandHaier inChina.The long to build a sounderfoundationfordemocracy sufficient termconsequences of short-term of knowledge inEurope. strategies inhis chapteron China (Chapter11),Doug diffusion need also tobe considered. Similarly, InChapter5,LindaGarcia does a good jobof summa Guthriearguesthat"information holdsatonce technology of digitalnetworksfortherural rizingtheimplications promiseand perilfortheChinesegovernment" (p. 313). urbandivide.She callsfora "deliberate ... The government ruralstrategy needs information to con technology to assurethatruralcommunities[have]equal access to tinueto pursue itseconomicdevelopmentgoals,but it criticalinfrastructure" wants to limittheuseof thattechnology (p. 141). by itscitizensfor RobertLathamprovidesa briefhistoricalsummary of thepurposeoforganizing oppositionto theone-party sys inChapter6.He correctly theriseof theInternet reminds tem.Guthrie,likeCedermanandKraus, isskeptical about was nothinginevitable readersthatthere about the tri claimsthatthediffusion of information will technologies ControlProtocol/Internet Pro in theshortterm. umphof theTransmission upset existingpoliticalarrangements in thecreation tocolprotocolsthatresulted of theInternet. Nevertheless, he statesthat"on themicro level,IT does Many firmsand nationalgovernments more supported appear to play a role in theevolutionof new typesof such as Open Systems socialnetworksand in creatingopportunities architectures closed-networking fornewly Interconnection (OSI). He argues that thekey to the emerging sectors of society"(p. 314). successof TCP/IP was theeasewithwhich it allowed ofChapters8 and Thus,with thepossibleexceptions usersto interconnect with others who had informational 9, all thechaptersin thiseditedvolumehave a common resources that werehighlyvalued.Lowercosts,efficiency, themeconsistent with the theoretical framework pro and fasterinterconnectivity werenot sufficient; therealso vided by theeditorsinChapter 1. It is disappointing had to be an information that theseeditorsdo not provide a conclusion; still, payoff. Steven Weber'sChapter7 on open-source software does the firstchapterdoes a good job of summarizingthe an excellentjobof summarizing thearguments presented contentof therestof thevolume.The writingisgener earlierinhisbook TheSuccess arewell presented.Iwould ofOpen Source(2004) and allyclearand thearguments ofextending themforthepurposesof thisvolume.Toward recommendthevolume foruse in advancedundergrad theend of thechapter, he speculatesaboutwhetherit is uate and graduatecourseson thepoliticsof information possibleforfirms and governments basedon hierarchical technology. 676
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