The Governance Gap: Globalization and the crisis of democracy in the west

Abstract

A crisis of governability has engulfed the world’s industrialized democracies. It is not coincidental that the United States, Europe, and Japan are simultaneously experiencing political breakdown. Rather, globalization is a common culprit. Across the West’s open societies, globalization is producing a widening gap between what electorates are asking of their governments and what those governments are able to deliver. This mismatch between the growing demand for good governance and its shrinking supply is dangerously compromising the power and purpose of the Western world.