| Popis: |
Civil society organisations (CSOs)1 are on the rise in international politics, certainly in numbers and, many would argue, also in political importance. Transnational civil society now interacts with virtually all international organisations. There are, however, various degrees of institutionalisation and formalisation of this interaction (Charnovitz, 1997; Steffek and Nanz, 2008). The United Nations (UN), for example, made formal arrangements for civil society participation from the very beginning of its existence in the 1940s (Alger, 2002; Willetts, 2000). The European Union (EU) also has a tradition of consultation with a variety of civil society actors, ranging from the social partners to advocacy groups and religious congregations (Greenwood, 2007a; Smismans, 2004). In global economic governance, the World Bank has established extensive contact with civil society for more than two decades, both in Washington DC and in the various countries where its projects are implemented (Brown and Fox, 2001; Acuna and Tuozzo, 2000). The world trade regime and the International Monetary Fund (IMF) traditionally have had much less interaction with civil society, but since the 1990s even these organisations are slowly opening up (Scholte, 2002; Woods and Narlikar, 2001; Esty, 1998). Overall, the frequency and extent of consultation between international organisations and organised civil society have increased greatly. |
