Discourse as Capability: Non-State Actors' Capital in Global Governance

Abstract

This article examines the power of non-state actors in transnational discourse. It sets out to construct an analytical framework for the study of power understood as effective social and linguistic practices based on immaterial capabilities. It will be argued that in the quest for adequate conceptualisations of the various non-material power resources NGOs dispose of, conventional behaviourist (realist) power theories are of limited use. They insufficiently take into account the role of language — as both a means for communication and as collectively shared meaning-structures — in the establishment and persistence of intersubjective power relations. Accordingly, discursive facets of power will be discussed, in particular their potential to shed light on the capabilities and strategies of NGOs to meaningfully participate in transnational communicative exchange. Turning to the empirical claim of the article — namely that the capital of NGOs resides in the discourses they represent and their abilities to promote these discourses within state-centred and state-created frameworks for communicative interaction — it will be outlined how the various roles NGOs assume fit into a concept of international politics conceived of as a discursive economy. The article concludes with a brief discussion of various cases in which NGOs have been increasingly successful as discursive entrepreneurs in global policy-making.