Hybrid networks that combine governmental, intergovernmental, and nongovernmental representatives, such as the World Commission on Dams, are another avenue to explore. We need to think harder about norms and procedures for the governance of globalization. Denial of the problem, misleading domestic political analogies, and unexamined claims of democratic deficits will not do. We need changes in processes that allow politics more play and take advantage of the multiple forms of accountability found in modern democracies. Increased accountability for the WTO, World Bank and other official transnational organizations will address many of the legitimate concerns of anti globalization protestors, while neutralizing their more dubious criticisms.
International institutions are too important to be left to demagogues, no matter how well-meaning.
The writer, dean of Harvard University's John F. Kennedy School of Government, contributed this comment to the International Herald Tribune.