The origins of global civil society and nonterritorial governance: Some empirical reflections

In this article, we examine two possibly competing hypotheses on the origins of global civil society. The first suggests that global civil society has developed rationally over a long period of time, continuous with the development of domestic civil society in democracies. The second postulates that global civil society is a relatively new phenomenon, one that has emerged to respond to unprecedented challenges to democracy as a result of globalization. Drawing on a case study of global politics surrounding plant biotechnology, we evaluate these two hypotheses. Our findings support the second, more institutionalist, possibility. We then use these findings to comment on how global civil society might be defined and how it relates to democracy.