Deconcentrated global governance, transnational administration, and the public administration discipline

Abstract

Global governance is transnationally administered. Today, global governance is no longer dominated by just states or even international organizations. It is an increasingly populated arena in which multiple actors have global policy power and transnational administrative influence. Each impacts a nation-state’s assumed administrative sovereignty. Global policy and its transnational administration may be decentralized, devolved, dispersed, and/or delegated away from exclusive state control. This reconfiguration of administrative sovereignty is explored via five case studies: Convention on International Trade of Endangered Species, the Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers, the Inspection Panel of the World Bank, the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation, and the World Social Forum. The resulting heuristic showcases a diversity of transnational administrative acts, articulates their “institutional center”, and provides opportunities for further public administration research.