Continuity and change in global governance: a normative quest

This chapter aims to embark on a more explicitly normative quest by exploring what people have ignored to date in many analyses of global governance, namely explanations for what people judge to be continuity versus change in global governance-or perhaps better said, possible explanations for changes in and changes of global governance-with a view to encouraging change or even transformation that is progressive and not regressive. Global governance can be seen as the latest entry in a distinguished normative genealogy and one that for many is concerned with our collective efforts to identify, understand, and address worldwide problems and processes that reach beyond the capacities. Without a concerted effort to press forward our understandings of the complexities of global governance, the way that authority and power are exercised, and the ideational and material aspects of the way that the world is governed, people risk not only misunderstanding the current world order but also underestimating our capacity to make meaningful adjustments.