6. Who profits most from global advocacy?

This chapter analyzes the rise of transnational advocacy and its consequences for the quality of global governance. In particular, the authors analyze whether global advocacy’s rapid growth has led to more equality in global governance representation. Moreover, they assess whether this has led to the emergence of a global civil society representative of global constituencies. The authors address these questions using original data drawn from a large-scale project that maps all organized interests participating in two international venues: (i) the World Trade Organizations Ministerial Conferences (1995-2017), and (ii) the United Nations Climate Summits (1997-2017). Drawing from this unique dataset, they carry out a systematic empirical assessment of contending views on the factors driving the rise of transnational advocacy. In doing so, the results demonstrate that cross-national differences in global interest representation mirror primarily states’ economic power, and that global interest communities are likely to remain dominated by organizations representing national-rather than global-interests.