Abstract

Global governance is a broad and diverse phenomenon. It encompasses many things. In 1995, the Commission on Global Governance defined it as “the sum of the many ways individuals and institutions, public and private, manage their common affairs.” Not surprisingly, the global governance concept, which has been in use since the 1990s, frequently generates a good deal of confusion, disagreement, lack of clarity, and misunderstanding. There is an urgent need to clarify our understanding global governance. A good way to begin to do this is to distinguish different types of global governance. What are the basic forms of global governance? This paper offers an approach to thinking about the different modes of global governance. I shall argue that three fundamental types have existed: hierarchal, pluralist, and cosmopolitan global governance. I shall call them “global hierarchia,” “global pluralia,” and “global cosmopolis.” This may be called the HPC model of global governance. Each has existed in the past. Each has left its mark in the present to greater or lesser degree. Each is likely to persist in the future.