Governing in a Postpolitical Era

Abstract

The governance of food security has taken on postpolitical characteristics that hinder rather than advance progress toward ending hunger and achieving the right to food for all. The postpolitical condition is made visible through the rise of technocratic governance, consensus-driven decision making, and the increasingly embedded logic of neoliberalism. This chapter sheds light on the ways in which postpolitical characteristics in global food security governance work to limit political decisions in favor of administrative functions. In so doing, important relationships of power and localized impacts are often hidden and, in turn, serve to maintain a status quo that fails to meet the needs of current and future populations. One way in which food security governance is being repoliticized at the global level, is through meaningful and enhanced participation of civil society actors. A review of the reformed UN Committee on World Food Security (CFS), with its innovative participation mechanisms, illustrates how participation can repoliticize global food security governance with important implications for the future of food security. The chapter concludes with reflections on the potential of scaling up the CFS model to other intergovernmental organizations, and how the Committee is positioned with respect to Agenda 2030 and the Sustainable Development Goals.