title: The Politics of Global Governance: International Organizations in an Interdependent World
author: Paul F. Diehl
description: Excellent.... [This] may be the best contemporary reader for advanced undergraduate classes in international governmental organizations.... The level of analysis and readability of [the] choices is ideal. --Philip Meeks, Perspectives on Political Science
zlib_text: Global Governance and Global Politics 
  Manuel Castells, University of Southern California, Los Angeles
  T
  he world is undergoing a process of
  structural transformation in multiple
  dimensions: technological, economic,
  cultural, and institutional. This creates
  as many opportunities as it induces per-
  ils. Perhaps the most fundamental prob-
  lem we now face is the crisis of politi-
  cal institutions in charge of managing
  the transition. We know the problems,
  we understand the issues, and in many
  countries there is enough political will
  to tackle the questions to be addressed.
  However, the organizational and institu-
  tional tools of governance are either 
  insufﬁcient or inadequate. Furthermore,
  the crisis of governance is related to a
  crisis of political legitimacy, character-
  ized by increasing distance between citi-
  zens and their representatives. Both
  crises feed into each other, threatening
  with political paralysis and opening the
  way both for authoritarian policies and
  for demagogic revo