Please use this identifier to cite or link to this item: https://hdl.handle.net/10419/209750 
Year of Publication: 
2019
Citation: 
[Journal:] South African Journal of International Affairs [ISSN:] 1938-0275 [Volume:] 26 [Issue:] 4 [Publisher:] Taylor & Francis [Place:] London [Year:] 2019 [Pages:] 549-562
Publisher: 
Taylor & Francis, London
Abstract: 
The G20 has two distinctive features that make it a unique forum in global politics. First, it is one of the few existing global platforms where different international institutions and regional organisations can coordinate across a vast array of issue areas and emergent policy fields. Second, it is an institution that brings together heads of government which control roughly 80\% of world GDP. Despite these features, the G20 lacks constitutive authority of its own, bound by a consensus principle which sharply delimits its scope of action. Notwithstanding its circumspect authority, no recent international body has garnered more attention from transnational civil society groups and advocacy networks than the G20. Most of this attention is critical and points to legitimacy problems. We argue that these legitimacy problems derive from a perception of untapped potential and undue privilege for great powers. Against this backdrop, we submit that a more active and institutionalised forum – with clear decision-making procedures for exercising authority – could help mitigate resistance and contribute to a more legitimate global governance system overall.
Subjects: 
G20
global governance
meta-governance
informality
reform
Persistent Identifier of the first edition: 
Creative Commons License: 
cc-by-nc-nd Logo
Document Type: 
Article
Document Version: 
Published Version

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