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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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WRAP_1170063-pais-030216-broome__quirk_-_governing_the_world_at_a_distance_-_the_practice_of_global_benchmarking.pdf - Accepted Version - Requires a PDF viewer. Download (643Kb) | Preview |
Official URL: http://dx.doi.org/10.1017/S0260210515000340
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: |
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| 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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