Navigating Polycentric Governance from a Citizen’s Perspective: The Rising New Middle Classes Respond

Abstract

A global growth in the middle class is anticipated to influence development choices and the evolution of domestic polities associated with a 'rising' South. Responding to the local effects of a multipolar world order will add to a citizen's existing need to navigate national polycentrism. Exploration of this citizen-centric phenomenon introduces a new, comprehensive analytic framework that combines public with private governance, the latter categorised as modern, traditional and virtual. These categories are used to compare and contrast events of mass activism in Brazil and Turkey. It is argued that electronically networked agency played a significant role in people's navigation involving scale, mobilization and self-organisation. In addition, a polycentric analysis suggests that a stronger middle class 'voice' for public accountability may be offset by processes that privatise domestic governance, reflecting what is happening internationally. Une croissance mondiale dans la classe moyenne est supposée influencer les choix de la coopération au développement et l'évolution des systèmes politiques nationaux associés à un Sud « montant». Le besoin de répondre aux effets locaux d'un ordre mondial multipolaire s'ajoutera à la nécessité actuelle pour un citoyen d'évoluer dans un contexte de polycentrisme national. L'exploration de ce phénomène centré sur le citoyen introduit un nouveau cadre analytique complet qui combine gouvernance publique et privée, cette dernière étant classée comme moderne traditionnelle et virtuelle. Ces catégories sont utilisées pour comparer et contraster les événements d'activisme de masse au Brésil et en Turquie. Il est soutenu que la possession d'un vaste réseau électronique joue un rôle important dans la capacité des gens à évoluer dans ce contexte, telle que la mise à l'échelle, la mobilisation et l'auto-organisation. En outre, une analyse polycentrique suggère qu'une mobilisation plus forte de la classe moyenne en faveur d'une responsabilité publique peut être annulée par des procédés qui privatisent la gouvernance nationale, reflétant ce qui se passe à l'échelle internationale.

Unequal and Divided The Middle Classes in Contemporary Brazil

“…Middle class is, as is well known, a disputed term not only within politics but also within the social sciences. In general, disagreements in the political sciences are linked to the different evaluations of the political role of the middle classes: Do they tend to be easy prey for right-wing populists or, just the opposite, driving forces for democracy and political governance (Fowler and Biekart 2016)? In the field of social anthropology, debates focus more properly on the different ways of interpreting the everyday experiences of the middle class as well as on the importance of aspects such as cultural and consumption practices for the conformation of class experience (Heiman et al 2012).…”

Multi‐Stakeholder Initiatives for Sustainable Development Goals: The Importance of Interlocutors

“…However, the importance of collective action—hyper or otherwise—is not limited to aided change and the SDGs. Across societies collaborations are being crafted to deal with the complex problems they face, spawning an organisational evolution with entities that are tailored for an ‘orchestration’ function at multiple socio‐political levels and economic scales (Fowler and Biekart, ). An evolution of this role player in societies generally is set to continue, a topic beyond the development cooperation scope of this article.…”