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Governing the world at a distance : the practice of global benchmarking

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Broome, André and Quirk, Joel (2015) Governing the world at a distance : the practice of global benchmarking. Review of International Studies, 41 (5). pp. 819-841. doi:10.1017/S0260210515000340

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Official URL: http://dx.doi.org/10.1017/S0260210515000340

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Abstract

Benchmarking practices have rapidly diffused throughout the globe in recent years. This can be traced to their popularity amongst non-state actors, such as civil society organisations and corporate actors, as well as states and international organisations (IOs). Benchmarks serve to both ‘neutralise’ and ‘universalise’ a range of overlapping normative values and agendas, including freedom of speech, democracy, human development, environmental protection, poverty alleviation, ‘modern’ statehood, and ‘free’ markets. The proliferation of global benchmarks in these key areas amounts to a comprehensive normative vision regarding what various types of transnational actors should look like, what they should value, and how they should behave. While individual benchmarks routinely differ in terms of scope and application, they all share a common foundation, with normative values and agendas being translated into numerical representations through simplification and extrapolation, commensuration, reification, and symbolic judgements. We argue that the power of benchmarks chiefly stems from their capacity to create the appearance of authoritative expertise on the basis of forms of quantification and numerical representation. This politics of numbers paves the way for the exercise of various forms of indirect power, or ‘governance at a distance’, for the purposes of either status quo legitimation or political reform.

Item Type: Journal Article
Subjects: J Political Science > JC Political theory
Divisions: Faculty of Social Sciences > Politics and International Studies
Library of Congress Subject Headings (LCSH): Benchmarking (Management), International agencies
Journal or Publication Title: Review of International Studies
Publisher: Cambridge University Press
ISSN: 0260-2105
Official Date: December 2015
Dates:
DateEvent
December 2015Published
25 November 2015Available
Volume: 41
Number: 5
Number of Pages: 23
Page Range: pp. 819-841
DOI: 10.1017/S0260210515000340
Status: Peer Reviewed
Publication Status: Published
Access rights to Published version: Restricted or Subscription Access
Funder: Seventh Framework Programme (European Commission) (FP7), University of the Witwatersrand, University of Warwick. Department of Politics and International Studies (PAIS)
Grant number: 266809-GR:EEN (FP7)

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