Opening to Omnilateralism

Catherine Vieilledent
Secretary General of Group Europe, UEF

Wolfgang Pape
Opening to Omnilateralism Democratic governance for all, from local to global with stakeholders
AuthorHouse, 2021, ISBN 1665583150, 652 p.

"We do not unite states, we unite people.” (Jean Monnet)

Its title is clear, this book is an invitation to broaden our system of governance to go beyond nation-state dominated multilateralism and include the voices of stakeholders (non-state actors or civil society, including corporations). The book calls for an "omnilateral" global system (from omnibus in Latin, "for and by all," quoting Immanuel Kant in “The Science of Rights” in 1790).

The multi-level governance that the book invokes strives to include the Eurasian perspective, non-Western cultures and the experience of other regional integrations in the world such as ASEAN, the AU and Mercosur. It is about opening up to "holistic" cultures, capable of understanding the global commons of the environment, the oceans or space, not to mention animal life, and of assuming mutual responsibility. This is reminiscent of Jeremy Rifkin's “The European Dream”, which evokes a European model based on respect for the individual and solidarity between individuals and with the environment.

However, the nation-state model, Wolfgang Pape explains (Chapter 1), has been exported to other parts of the world, including Asia, without there generating more advanced cooperation than international structures essentially for purposes of trade. This is a model of sovereignty that has been exhausted by the concurrence of several forces: the integration of economies and above all finance, the penetration of multinational corporations especially of the Internet, the citizens’ loss of confidence and their increased demands at the local level, the progress of international justice, the action of non-governmental organisations, and the emergence of challenges that we can only solve collectively based on interdependence (e.g. climate change).

The second chapter focuses on globalisation and analyses the causes of the gradual but irresistible decline of national sovereignty. In particular, the author identifies as a factor of renewal the emergence of international non-governmental organisations ("INGOs") and the association of non-state actors such as corporations (in the name of social responsibility). These, of course, give rise to questions of legitimacy and possible conflicts of interest for European countries: can we speak of official NGOs ("ONGOs") and how can we avoid an accreditation system that is perceived as preferential treatment? The author gives as an advanced example the International Labour Organization with its tripartite structure (workers, employers and governments), a legacy of workers' struggles in the 19th century Europe. But it lacks binding powers, which disqualifies it as a truly "omnilateral" organisation.

Western-style globalisation is accompanied by a void linked to the "Anglo-Saxon disorientation". Bilateralism is making a comeback but remains an often unequal form of cooperation, breeding chaos and legal uncertainty. Multilateralism is now outdated, according to the author, because it lacks binding instruments and grants the Member States a formal equality, whatever their demographic or economic weight. This makes it unfit to manage worldwide commons such as the environment, climate change, pandemics, etc. The author, we are to understand, calls for the sharing of sovereignties and supports the construction of regional integrations, of which the European Union is the prototype.

Renewing modes of global governance (or collective organisations, the term is debated), implies a differentiated approach from the most local to the global level. The "multi-level governance" (chapter 3) that the author invokes does not rely on general mechanisms of direct democracy. At higher stages, it is indeed risky to resort to decision-making mechanisms based on the volatility of mass opinion, which can easily be manipulated by populists or algorithms (see the Brexit votes and the election of Donald Trump, or the market of opinions on social networks).

What proximity makes possible at grassroot level, is no longer possible as the level of decision-making moves away from the local and the sphere of everyday life (chapter 5): indirect, representative filtrations must be used, informed by expertise and information that vary from country to country. Parliamentary democracy has long made it possible to filter individual opinions, but it is under pressure from the very fact of forms of governance, particularly federal ones, such as exist in Europe. Solidarity does not come naturally, even in federal or quasi-federal structures: we note the regional splintering of parties in Belgium, opposition to budgetary transfer or equalisation mechanisms between regions in Germany, and the reduction of the legislative powers of national parliaments in the EU, even though it is the latter that stands accused of suffering from a democratic deficit.

However, compared with other regional organisations, the EU has powerful and effective mechanisms for formulating and arbitrating the common European interest: it is the community method, since the origin of the Communities, with the Commission as a lever and counterweight to the national interests that dominate the intergovernmental method. The supranational element of the EU is without equivalent in international organisations.

The author thus calls for a reform of the United Nations, which he believes can only result from external pressure: such a reform would be based on the association, in addition to states, of sub-national organizations and "regional" governance bodies and on a mode of financing that is independent of States. Global governance, he argues, is increasingly the responsibility of Civil Society and groups active in environmental or Internet issues, for example, which are able to deliberate on issues that transcend national borders.

The book concludes, as one of its key arguments, with the concept of non-state "stakeholders" (which it opposes to shareholders, whose interest is narrow and short-term, or to states dedicated to formal and territorial representation). As coalitions of interest groups, or participatory partnerships working towards agreed objectives, stakeholders are viewed as a "qualitative" contribution to the democratic process, based on expertise and the ability to convince. Together with a weighting of the votes of states according to their importance, but also according to the impact the issue has for them (cities, islands, etc.), this could be a solution to the need to reform the functioning of the UN General Assembly.

One of the charms of the book is the personal testimony of the author, both during his formative years as a student in Europe, America and Asia, and as a EU representative in Japan for a dozen years. And the analyses he provides of the history of Asia and Europe, as well as its anchoring in recent and older current events. The book introduces a number of original concepts ("concentric identity", "Enlightening 2.0", "Westlessness", "crowd decisions", etc. drawn from numerous readings) and the critical apparatus is very rich (index, bibliography, notes).