Global accountability and transnational networks: the Women Leaders' Network and Asia Pacific Economic Cooperation

Abstract

Decisions that affect the life chances and wellbeing of citizens are increasingly being made in international settings that are only indirectly connected to the democratic institutions where those citizens have a voice. Global and regional governance organizations not only lack the democratic legitimacy of states but also there are few mechanisms that make them accountable to the citizens that their decision making most affects. Civil society groups have exposed this gap between the jurisdiction and the impact of supra-state organizations and have proposed various ways of addressing it. Feminist analysis has highlighted the masculine preserve of traditionally closed-door multilateral trade and security discussions and negotiations. It has also highlighted the unequal and deeply structural gender impact of this style of policy making. Women's movements have found international organizations to be especially challenging institutional settings within which to achieve policy influence. Yet transnational feminist networks have the political and ethical resources to make global governance organizations more accountable to a broader constituency. This article explores this phenomenon through an examination of the Women Leaders' Network (WLN) and its efforts to make Asia Pacific Economic Cooperation more accountable to women as political and economic actors. The WLN is the only women's transnational advocacy network to have directly and routinely engaged with an economic intergovernmental organization. An analysis of the limits and potentials of the WLN model highlights accountability issues for APEC (Asia Pacific Economic Cooperation) and other regional or global governance organizations, as well as for the WLN and transnational civil society networks more generally.