The Role of Subnational Governments in Strengthening the Importance of Global Public Goods

This paper will focus on the role of subnational governments in strengthening the importance of Global Public Goods (GPGs). GPGs are usually perceived in the realm of environmental, human rights and developmental issues, among others, which are related to the interests of not only national states, but especially of subnational governments and organized civil society groups. Although national states are still the main actors in the studies of international relations, non-state actors such as transnational companies, civil society organizations as well as subnational governments are receiving greater attention from scholars. According to Rosenau (1988) a multi-centric world has been evolving since the end of the twentieth century, creating “overlapping memberships” between state-centric e multi-centric actors. The author also affirms that this multi-centric world is transforming processes and structures of world politics, and among the several impacts this transformation may impose, this paper will argue that in a multi-centric world the idea GPGs will gain greater importance in the realm of global governance studies and that subnational governments will play an important role in strengthening the international agenda for GPGs. Although subnational states do not have the autonomy to engage in extensive foreign policy agreements in the sense of “high politics” (SALOMÓN and NUNES, 2007), subnational states are nonetheless important actors in setting the international agenda. Local governments have the advantage of being closer to civil society groups, companies and the general constituency that are most affected by public policies – and therefore by GPGs – than national governments. This paper will be divided into three parts: it starts by explaining what are the main issues discussed in the GPGs literature; then it elaborates on how subnational governments influence the provision of GPGs; and finally it derives some inputs on how GPGs main issues converge with the interests of subnational governments.