Global Democratic Governance and the Reform of the United Nations - 中欧社会论坛 - China Europa Forum

Global Democratic Governance and the Reform of the United Nations

Authors: He Zengke

Extract from ” Contemporary World and Socialism, No. 1, 2004, pp. 79-84“

1. World government, New Imperialism and Global Governance

Advocators of world government argue that political globalisation will lead to the emergence of a global country; national sovereignty is obsolete, dying and shrinking; national sovereignty should be limited and finally be obliterated. Believers of new imperialism hold that the goal of political globalisation is to maintain a world order led by imperialism. The foundation of this world order is a unipolar world and power politics. Supporters of global governance believe that in the era of political globalisation, nation-states remain the most fundamental and important bodies of governance in global politics; sovereign equality principle is still the basis for the legitimacy of global governance mechanisms; meanwhile, the scope of national sovereignty should go through necessary adjustments and changes.

Those in favour of global governance advocate a step-by-step and gradual UN reform. The goal of this gradual reform in the framework of the basic structure of the United Nations and the UN Charter is to improve the efficiency of the United Nations, to promote the democratisation of the United Nations and to allow the UN to play a greater role in the global governance.

China stands for political multi-polarisation and democratisation of international relations, upholds the principle of the sovereign equality, holds that the nature of the UN as an international intergovernmental organisation constituted of sovereign states should not be changed or altered, and believes that the contact between the UN and non-state actors should be strengthened. Therefore, among different views on the goal or the trend of the political globalisation, China shares the same or similar viewpoints with the basic ideas of global governance.

2. Global Democratic Governance and the Reform of the United Nations

A real democracy of global governance requires an establishment of a new international political and economic order. Specifically, China’s position on the new international political and economic order can be understood through the following four principles:

(1) The new concept of international relations: from the old state relations based on the hierarchical structure to a new state relation based on mutual respect of sovereignty. (2) The new concept of stability: from the stability based on unipolar hegemony to a stability based on a multipolar system. (3) The new concept of development: from the development based on center - periphery dependency and polarisation of rich and poor to win-win approaches to development based on interdependency and joint development, leading to the eradication of poverty. (4) The new understanding of civilisation: from the superiority of one civilisation to the harmonious coexistence of diversified civilisations.

China’s view on the guiding principles of the reform of the United Nations has much in common with the theory of global democratic governance. China’s view can be summarised into the following five aspects: first, the reform of the United Nations should safeguard the sovereignty of member states: second, the reform of the United Nations should give equal importance to issues related to development, poverty reduction and promotion of sustainable development and those issues related to peace and security maintenance: third, the reform of the United Nations should be conducive to the peaceful settlement of international conflicts: fourth, the reform of the United Nations should reflect principles based on democratic, just, objective, reasonable, balanced and effective foundations; and finally, the reform of the United Nations should help maintain the diversity of the world.

3. China and the Reform of the United Nations

China welcomes UN’s administrative reform aimed at enhancing efficiency. China supports the idea of strengthening the status and role of the UN General Assembly. China also welcomes proper and necessary reforms of the Security Council and holds that core issues in its reform are the expansion of its membership and the improvement of its working methods. Expansion of the membership of the Security Council should follow the principle of equitable geographical distribution, giving priority to increasing representation of developing countries. China welcomes those efforts aimed at strengthening the United Nations’ capacity to promote global economy and sustainable social development.

The UN reform is a major issue about which different parties are highly concerned. The UN reform should not set itself a goal to become a world government, but to play a more active role in the global governance. China maintains that the UN reform should serve the purposes and principles of the UN Charter, improve the United Nations’ work efficiency, deepen democracy of the United Nations and relevant international institutions, and increase the representation and voice of developing countries in the United Nations and its relevant institutions. The UN reform should be carried out gradually based on negotiations and a broad consensus.

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