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International Organizations and the Pursuit of Justice in the World Economy

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  28 September 2012

Steven Weber
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Abstract

Evaluating the role of international organizations (IOs) in promoting social justice in a globalizing international political economy, this essay presents and defends four propositions:

IOs are in a different, and more vulnerable, political space vis-à-vis globalization than are nation-states, firms, nongovernmental organizations, or labor unions;

Central perceptions about problems of social justice in the context of globalization common to many IOs are a product of the history and intellectual trajectory in which these organizations have evolved;

As a result, there is a common theme and a core set of objectives at play, having to do with promoting and sustaining liberalization. That is obviously not the same thing as social justice, although in some intellectual frameworks there is a tight relationship; and

The ability of IOs to promote these goals has been challenged and will continue to be challenged by globalization.

The essay concludes by arguing that IOs are suffering a loss of legitimacy, and that both social and technological changes associated with globalization will make it harder for IOs to recapture the power to affect the behavior of other actors in world politics.

Type
Justice and The World Economy
Information
Ethics & International Affairs , Volume 14 , March 2000 , pp. 99 - 117
Copyright
Copyright © Carnegie Council for Ethics in International Affairs 2000

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References

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2 This is contested in academic political science. See Keohane, Robert, International Institutions and State Power. Essays in International Relations Theory (Boulder: Westview Press, 1989Google Scholar); and Weber, Steven, “Institutions and Change,” in Doyle, Michael and Ikenberry, G. John, eds., New Thinking in International Relations (Boulder: Westview Press, 1997Google Scholar).

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