Global Social Justice at the WTO : The Role of International Non-Governmental Organisations in Constructing Global Social Contracts

A peculiar phenomenon afflicts global governance: while individuals make countless personal contracts with others and even with their states, a global-level set of contracts between citizens and international organizations remains conspicuously absent. This is despite the fact that a significant amount of international policymaking impacts on citizens across the globe on a daily basis. For example, international organizations have developed policies to address a wide range of global issues such as Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome (SARS), terrorism, nuclear proliferation and trade liberalization, but ordinary citizens are largely excluded from participating in the global governance of these issues. There is effectively no global-level social contract involving international agencies, nation-states and citizens. This deficiency contributes to legitimacy problems in global-level policymaking that limit the effectiveness of both policy processes and their outcomes. It is being addressed in the international political context by NGOs’ protests against the economic policies of the WTO and their advocacy of a global social contract or, more precisely, a series of global social contracts involving civil society, governments and international organizations