Global Norms Through Global Deliberation? Reflections on the World Commission on Dams (Report‪)‬

In recent years, global "deliberative processes" bringing together government, civil society, and private sector actors have become increasingly common on the global stage. Past work on these processes has either read them as relatively unproblematic consensus-building exercises, or exercises in global corporatism. Using a case study of the World Commission on Dams, this article explores how formal global deliberative processes can be a strategy for global norm formation and legitimation. It suggests that global deliberation can indeed be a vehicle for emergence and propagation of norms, but that these processes face multiple challenges that are structural in nature. Three factors are identified as key elements in understanding norm emergence through global deliberation: the legitimacy of global deliberation linked to questions of representation and democratic procedure; the micropolitics of norm emergence; and the process through which incipient norms are institutionalized by states. Keywords: World Commission on Dams, norms, transnational advocacy networks, global governance, multislakeholder process, global civil society, public-private partnership I assert that we are much more than a "Dams Commission." We are a Commission to heal the deep and self-inflicted wounds torn open wherever and whenever far too few determine for far too many how best to develop or use water and energy resources .. real development must be people-centred, while respecting the role of the state as mediating, and often representing, their interests. We do not endorse globalisation from above by a few men. We do endorse globalisation as led from below by all. a new approach to global water policy and development." --Kader Asmal, chair, World Commission on Dams