Beyond the monopoly of states

In the twenty-first century, a wide range of complex global challenges will require unprecedented levels of global cooperation between states and non-state actors. Yet few leading international institutions today are designed to effectively leverage the resources, ingenuity, and connectivity of diverse societal actors. While some scholars maintain the view that civil society should not meaningfully participate in the governance of international institutions, a new generation of multi-stakeholder institutions points to a new way of understanding the relationship between non-state actors and international institutions. This article examines the role of civil society in the governance of international institutions and highlights this new generation of multi-stakeholder institutions that involve non-state actors as full participants in governance. It applies insights from work on associative democracy to suggest a new approach to evaluating civil society participation within international institutions.