The scope of research and teaching of global governance in the study area of Public Management & Governance deals with the problematic issues associated with the governance of global contexts. Global contexts - such as the global economy, the global financial system, the global health system, global epistemic communities, global development strategies, global policy networks and many other global stakeholders and institutions - emerge in the course of an accelerated globalization. They disconnect from the governing influence of nation states in certain respects and begin their individual history of the formation of self-governing regimes. The result is a complex, multi-layered field of tension between nation states and global contexts which is organized in diverse forms of governance - from self-governing to global governance.
Global Governance is a very young academic discipline in contrast to theories of state or administrative sciences and is an emerging field of political practice. This implies that both theories of global governance, and models and fields of practice associated with global governance must first develop and be encompassed in a dynamic development and change process. Globalization and its consequences constitute a very controversial political field in this process which is characterized by conflicting spheres of interest. On the one hand, there are the winners and losers of globalization and on the other hand new stakeholders and institutions which emerge in the conflict over global governance regimes. Both of these constitute challenges for established governance and forms of administration which lead to changes at the level of traditional nation states.
In light of this, the scope of work focuses on the following:
| Theories of global governance, formation of governance regimes;
| Models of governing global function systems
| Practice of global system governance
Theories of Global Governance; Genesis of Governance Regimes
From the early theories of modernization and the Wallerstein World Systems Theory to today’s theories of world society there is a colorful diversity of theoretical explanatory perspectives that deal with a useful reconstruction of the functions and consequences of global governance. It is especially important that there is a connection to sociological theories of society, political science theories of creating order and regimen, and general theory of the governance of highly complex social systems. An especially controversial problem in this respect is the issue of how the processes of establishing a world society interact with the complementary processes of the education of a knowledge society.
Models of the Governing of Global Function Systems
Global function systems (of finance, economy and trade to sports, tourism, mass media, health, science, art, education, and development to religion, crime and terrorism) are increasingly developing their own governing competencies which expand upon their own central institutions for strategic purposes. Therefore, the operating principles, resources, conflict situations and paradoxes of these global institutions – e.g., especially WTO, WHO, BIZ, IOC, IEA, IRC, etc. – compose an especially important research and teaching field of the study area of global governance. Likewise, these institutions and organizations are possible occupational fields and employers for graduates of the PMG program.
Practice in Global System Governance
Practice in global system governance is influenced by the fact that there is no comprehensive political arbitration (with the exception of the highly specialized UN Security Council) on a global scale. Therefore, lateral world systems develop their own governance regimes that are founded upon diverse resources, but that increasingly depend upon the resource of knowledge (specialized expertise). Likewise, complex and heterogeneous global law systems are lumped together under the key word "global law." Finally, the resource of morals is experiencing a problematic renaissance through the dynamics of globalization.
A central question of the practice of global system governance is therefore: How does the different distribution and use, as well as the different access to these resources, influence the legitimacy and sustainability of emerging governance regimes?
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