According to a report recently published by Oxfam International, the world’s 62 richest people possess the same amount of wealth as the poorest half of the world’s population. Women and minorities remain largely underrepresented or disadvantaged compared to men and racial/cultural elites. From politics to education, business, health and culture, gender or racial disparities persist almost everywhere in the world. Furthermore, organized interests monopolize lobbying.
On average, out of the 100 organizations that spend the most on lobbying in developed countries, 95 represent business. The situation is alarming . According to Martin Gilens of Princeton University, the opinions of the bottom 90% of income earners in America have a “statistically non-significant impact” on policy-making.
Yet, connections among civil society actors located all over the world are experiencing historically unprecedented quantities, scopes, frequencies, velocities, intensities and impacts. From the “virtual web” of citizens that rally together through online petitions to more formalized coalitions of non-state actors operating in remote locations of the planet, an associative spirit seems to pave the way for cooperation that may offset the much debated decline in representative democracy.
New York University Florence organizes a talk aimed at discussing the tactics and strategies used by civil society’s actors to shape policy-making; the influence of ‘social movements’ on global politics; the networking of NGOs and other civil society organizations at the global level |
