Conclusion

• Author: Denis Benn/Kenneth O. Hall
• Profession: Michael Manley Professor of Public Affairs and Public Policy, University of the West Indies, Mona/Pro Vice Chancellor and Principal of the University of the West Indies, Mona campus
• Pages: 602-607

602 GOVERNANCE IN THE AGE OF GLOBALISATION

the analyses contained in the various contributions in this volume provide

a comprehensive assessment of the governance challenge at the national,

regional and global level. They also present a number of useful insights into the

overall conception of governance, the nature of the environment in which

governance systems operate, and the strategies and approaches which could be

pursued in order to ensure its optimum application in given political contexts.

It is useful therefore to highlight some of the more significant ideas which have

emerged from the analysis.

There is fairly widespread recognition that the changes which have occurred

in the international system in recent years following the collapse of the Soviet

Union and the emergence of a triumphal capitalism coupled with the impact of

the September 11, 2001 event, have led to the resurgence of a posture of

unilateralism on the part of the United States which is combined with an

increasing preoccupation with security concerns and military preparedness.

These developments, together with the logic of globalisation, have in turn

exercised a dominant influence on the environment in which governments

function and have complicated the prospects for democratic global governance

which is necessarily premised on a commitment to multilateralism.

Given current realities, it is also clear that governments on their own cannot

deal with the multifaceted and increasingly complex challenges which confront

them. Consequently, an optimum system of governance should be premised on

the establishment of a creative partnership between the state, the private sector

and civil society. However, while the private sector and the market should play

an important role in the development process, contrary to the more extreme

propositions of neo-liberalism, the state would need to continue to play a strategic

role in the process of governance, particularly in the case of the developing

countries which in may cases experience a low level of development and have

comparatively underdeveloped and undifferentiated production structures. As

Joseph Stiglitz has reminded us, positive development outcomes in the

developing countries often require strategic actions on the part of the state in

such countries. Moreover, as Rex Nettleford has noted, market liberalism does

not necessarily imply less government but different and better government.

Based on continuing instability and the near breakdown of some political

systems in the Caribbean, most notably in Guyana which has experienced

increasing levels of violence in recent months, there is an urgent need to identify

creative models of governance aimed at political reconciliation. For this reason,

CONCLUSION