Global governance — AQA A-Level Geography
Test yourself on Global governance with AQA A-Level practice questions.
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Global governance explained
Global governance relies on the emergence and developing role of norms, laws, and institutions to regulate and reproduce global systems.
Read the full explanation
Norms are accepted standards of behaviour, such as the expectation of human rights protection. Laws provide legally binding frameworks, like the UN Convention on the Law of the Sea (UNCLOS), which regulates maritime activities. Institutions, such as the World Trade Organization (WTO) or the United Nations, enforce these rules and facilitate cooperation. Together, they regulate global systems by managing conflicts and trade, while reproducing them by establishing continuous, stable frameworks that encourage ongoing international integration and standardise global interactions over time.
Issues associated with attempts at global governance, including how: agencies, including the UN in the post-1945 era, can work to promote growth and stability but may also exacerbate inequalities and injustices; interactions between the local, regional, national, international and global scales are fundamental to understanding global governance.
Global governance involves complex rule-making to manage global affairs, but it faces significant issues. Post-1945 agencies like the United Nations (UN) aim to promote economic growth and geopolitical stability through peacekeeping and development goals. However, these institutions can inadvertently exacerbate inequalities and injustices. For example, structural adjustment programmes by global financial institutions often disproportionately harm the poorest citizens in developing nations. Understanding global governance requires analysing interactions across all scales. A global climate treaty (global scale) must be ratified by governments (national), implemented by councils (regional/local), and supported by international NGOs, showing how top-down policies rely on bottom-up compliance.
Your focus
- Differentiate between the roles of norms, laws, and institutions in global governance.
- Explain how international frameworks regulate complex global economic and political systems.
- Assess how institutions reproduce global systems by fostering long-term stability and cooperation.
Show all 6 objectives
- Critique the effectiveness of post-1945 agencies like the UN in promoting global growth and stability.
- Explain how global governance mechanisms can inadvertently exacerbate social and economic injustices.
- Analyse the interactions between local, regional, national, international, and global scales in the context of global governance.
Global governance exam tips
Marking Points
- Define and distinguish between norms (accepted behaviours), laws (binding agreements), and institutions (organisations).
- Explain how institutions like the UN or WTO have emerged and developed to manage complex global interactions.
- Analyse the role of international laws, such as UNCLOS, in regulating shared global spaces and systems.
- Evaluate how these governance mechanisms reproduce global systems by maintaining stability and promoting continuous integration.
- Explain the role of the UN and other post-1945 agencies in maintaining geopolitical stability and fostering economic growth.
- Evaluate how global governance policies can create or worsen inequalities, such as unequal voting power in the IMF or UN Security Council vetoes.
- Analyse the concept of injustice in global governance, where developing nations may bear the brunt of environmental or economic policies dictated by wealthier states.
- Demonstrate how global governance operates across multiple scales, linking global agreements to national legislation and local implementation.
Examiner Tips
- 💡Memorise specific examples for each category: a norm (e.g., sustainability), a law (e.g., UNCLOS), and an institution (e.g., the IMF).
- 💡Discuss the 'developing role' by highlighting how institutions adapt to new global challenges like climate change or cyber security.
- 💡Critically evaluate the effectiveness of these mechanisms, noting where institutions may fail to enforce laws or where norms are ignored.
- 💡Use specific examples of UN interventions, such as peacekeeping missions or the Sustainable Development Goals, to illustrate attempts at promoting stability.
- 💡When discussing inequalities, reference the structural power imbalances within global institutions like the IMF, World Bank, or WTO.
- 💡Always link global policies to their local impacts to demonstrate an understanding of multi-scalar interactions in global governance.
Common Mistakes
- Confusing norms with laws; correction: clearly distinguish norms as customary, expected behaviours and laws as formal, legally binding agreements.
- Ignoring the 'reproducing' aspect of the statement; correction: explain how institutions not only control (regulate) but also sustain and expand (reproduce) global systems over time.
- Providing generic descriptions of institutions; correction: use specific examples of how an institution's role has developed, such as the WTO's evolving mechanisms for dispute resolution.
- Assuming global governance only occurs at the international level; correction: recognise that global governance requires interaction across local, regional, national, and global scales.
- Viewing the UN solely as a positive force for growth; correction: critically evaluate how UN structures, like the Security Council veto, can perpetuate geopolitical inequalities.
- Confusing global governance with a 'world government'; correction: define global governance as a complex framework of agreements, norms, and institutions, not a single sovereign authority.