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7.  Is the public involved in the choices of which goods to make public?

The global public refers to the general population, civil society organizations, corporate citizens and states. Global public goods can also be seen as the global public’s goods—goods that are in the global public domain and may concern all people. However, very often only a fraction of the public is involved in the decision-making process that places these goods in the public domain. This can be due to a lack of capacity of certain parties to be fully involved in the decision-making process (e.g. for developing countries) or due to a lack of rules of participation for specific actors (e.g. civil society or business).

[For a discussion on developing country participation, see the chapter on IMF governance by Ariel Buira and the chapter on enhancing negotiating capacity by Pamela Chasek and Lavanya Rajamani. For a discussion on the participation of non-state actors, see the chapter by Michael Edwards and Simon Zadek.]

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